Issue 9, 2015

A highly selective two-photon fluorescent probe for the determination of mercury ions

Abstract

In this work, we developed a new two-photon fluorescent probe, ATD (ATD = amino triphenylamine dendron), by combining a two-photon fluorophore 4-(bis(4-(4-(diphenylamino)styryl)-phenyl)amino) benzaldehyde (TD) with a specific recognition molecule for Hg2+ – phenyl thiourea (PT) – for the determination of Hg2+. The designed fluorescent probe emitted at ∼455 nm upon one-photon and two-photon excitation at 400 nm and 800 nm, respectively. The blue fluorescence obviously dropped with the continuous addition of Hg2+, and demonstrated a good linearity with the concentration of Hg2+ in a wide dynamic range of 5 nM–1.0 μM. The detection limit achieved was 0.49 nM (∼0.2 ppb), which is much lower than the standard levels required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, this probe featured high selectivity for Hg2+ detection over other metal ions such as Cd2+, Ag+, Pd2+, and so on, due to the specific Hg2+ recognition by the PT molecule. Meanwhile, the probe demonstrated long-term stability with respect to pH and illumination. As a result, the developed two-photon fluorescent probe, with high sensitivity and selectivity, was successfully applied for the on-site determination of Hg2+ in environmental water samples.

Graphical abstract: A highly selective two-photon fluorescent probe for the determination of mercury ions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Feb 2015
Accepted
09 Mar 2015
First published
09 Mar 2015

Analyst, 2015,140, 3285-3289

Author version available

A highly selective two-photon fluorescent probe for the determination of mercury ions

F. Liu, C. Ding, M. Jin and Y. Tian, Analyst, 2015, 140, 3285 DOI: 10.1039/C5AN00277J

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