Synthesis of the cationic fluorescent probes for the detection of anionic surfactants by electrostatic self-assembly

Aiqing Feng; Fangru Jiang; Guiyuan Huang; Peilian Liu

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2019.117446

Synthesis of the cationic fluorescent probes for the detection of anionic surfactants by electrostatic self-assembly

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2020 Jan 5:224:117446. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.117446. Epub 2019 Jul 31.

Authors

Aiqing Feng¹, Fangru Jiang², Guiyuan Huang², Peilian Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Life Science, Luoyang Normal University, Luoyang 471934, PR China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Materials Chemistry of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Lingnan Normal University, Zhanjiang 524048, China.
³ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Materials Chemistry of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Lingnan Normal University, Zhanjiang 524048, China. Electronic address: liupeilian2010@126.com.

PMID: 31400744
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.117446

Abstract

Anionic surfactants were widespread used in car cleaning agents, household detergents, agricultural and industrial processes, and considered as a major source of environmental pollutant. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a fast, simple, highly selective and sensitive probe for the detection of anionic surfactants. Here, we synthesized two aggregation induced emission (AIE)-active molecules 4,4',4″,4‴-(ethene-1,1,2,2-tetrayltetrakis(benzene-4,1-diyl))tetrakis (1-(4-bromobenzyl)pyridin-1-ium) bromide (TPE-Br) and 4,4',4″,4‴-(ethene-1,1,2,2-trayltetrakis(benzene-4,1-diyl))tetrakis(1-methylpyridin-1-ium)iodide (TPE-I), which were then applied as fluorescence probes for detecting sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) with high selectivity and sensitivity. In the presence of SDS, a multi-fold fluorescence emission intensity enhancement was observed in both two probes (TPE-Br and TPE-I) due to the electrostatic self-assembly of AIE molecular. The limits of detection are 71.5 and 120 nM for TPE-Br and TPE-I, respectively. This study may provide a new strategy for environmental monitoring by AIE-based fluorescent probe.

Keywords: Aggregation induced emission; Fluorescent probe; Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS).