A simple and convenient method has been developed for synthesis of water-soluble CdTe quantum dots （QDs） under ambient atmospheric conditions. In contrast to the traditional aqueous synthesis, green to red emitting CdTe QDs were prepared by using TeO2 to replace Te or AIzTe3 as tellurium source in this method. The influences of ex- perimental variables, including pH value, 3-mercaptopropionic acid （MPA）/Cd and Te/Cd molar ratios, on the emis- sion peak and photoluminescence （PL） quantum yield （QY） of the obtained CdTe QDs have been systematically investigated. Experimental results indicate that green to red emitting CdTe QDs with a maximum photolumines- cence quantum yield of 35.4% can be prepared at pH 11.3 and rt（Cd） ： n（Te） ： n（MPA）= 1 ： 0.1 ： 1.7.
