Development of a conjugated polymer-based fluorescent probe for selective detection of HOCl

Abstract

A novel fluorescent probe is fabricated by integrating an aniline unit into the semiconducting conjugated polymer (SCP) nanoparticles. The as-prepared probe shows a remarkable fluorescence “turn-off” response to hypochlorous acid (HOCl) due to the conjugation perturbation caused by selective oxidation of aniline groups by HOCl. This work provides a new method for highly selective detection of HOCl by using conjugated polymer nanoparticles.