Inorganic Quantum Dots: Synthetic Strategy and Environmental Applications

Abstract

This review comprehensively summarizes the synthetic strategies, gas sensing applications, and pollutant removal performance of inorganic quantum dots (IQDs). It highlights the recent advancements in organic-phase and aqueous-phase synthesis methods that enable precise control over IQDs size, surface chemistry, and optoelectronic properties for environmental applications. The discussion emphasizes the exceptional gas sensing performance of IQDs through surface charge modulation, fluorescence quenching mechanisms, and quantum confinement effects, thus enabling ultrasensitive detection of nitrogenous and sulfur-containing pollutants. For environment remediation, IQDs demonstrate superior photocatalytic efficiency via tailored bandgap engineering, heterojunction design, and enhanced charge separation for gaseous pollutant degradation. Further, the critical challenges of IQDs in the environmental applications have been proposed from the aspects of scalable synthesis, long-term stability under operational conditions, and toxicity assessments. Overall, this review outlines the sustainable development pathways involving eco-friendly IQDs alternatives and circular economy approaches, which provide deep insights for designing next-generation IQDs systems for environmental applications.