LAUSR

Abstract Herein, we report, interaction of water-soluble ZnSe core only (size = 3.60 ± 0.12 nm, zeta potential = −45 mV), and ZnSe@ZnS core-shell (size = 4.80 ± 0.20 nm, zeta potential = –38 mV) quantum dots (QDs) with three globular plasma proteins (Human Serum Albumin (HSA), Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg)). It was found that QDs effectively quenched the fluorescence of proteins that was size-dependent. The nature of quenching was static which resulted from the generation of QDs-Protein complexes. It was found that the binding affinity followed: BSA > HSA > β-Lg for both ZnSe and ZnSe@ZnS samples. Interestingly, the secondary and tertiary structure of proteins remained unaffected after interactions.