A novel ionic conjugated polymer fluorescent probe (IP) containing fluorenyls and imines was synthesized through a simple condensation method for the rapid detection of Cu2+. The probe exhibited a selective quenching response toward Cu2+over other common metal ions in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at a pH of 7. Moreover, the fluorescence intensity ofIPwas linearly proportional to the concentration of Cu2+when it ranged from 1 to 10μM, and the limit of detection for Cu2+was 0.45μM. Furthermore, the quenched fluorescence ofIPby Cu2+was recovered after adding amino acids or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), indicating that the probe could be recycled and is promising to reduce the detection cost of Cu2+in real samples.
Keywords: Cu2+ probe; Schiff base; conjugated polymer; fluorene; fluorescence.
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