Anthracene and tetraphenylsilane based conjugated porous polymer nanoparticles for sensitive detection of nitroaromatics in water

Xiaosong Sun; Qihao Cui; Wenyue Dong; Qian Duan; Teng Fei

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2023.123667

Anthracene and tetraphenylsilane based conjugated porous polymer nanoparticles for sensitive detection of nitroaromatics in water

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2024 Mar 5:308:123667. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123667. Epub 2023 Nov 20.

Authors

Xiaosong Sun¹, Qihao Cui¹, Wenyue Dong², Qian Duan³, Teng Fei⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun 130022, PR China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun 130022, PR China; Chongqing Research Institute, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401135, PR China. Electronic address: dongwenyue@cust.edu.cn.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun 130022, PR China; Engineering Research Center for Optoelectronic Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130022, PR China. Electronic address: duanqian88@hotmail.com.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China.

PMID: 38000326
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123667

Abstract

Conjugated porous polymers (CPPs) are a kind of promising sensing materials for the detection of nitroaromatic compounds, but their sensing applications in aqueous media are limited because of their poor dispersity or solubility in water. In this study, we prepared anthracene and tetraphenylsilane based CPPs named PSiAn by conventional Suzuki coupling and Suzuki-miniemulsion polymerization, respectively. The structure, morphology and porosity of the CPPs were characterized by Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and N₂ sorption isotherm, respectively. Both of the CPPs have porous structure which is beneficial for the adsorption and diffusion of the analytes within them. The particle size of PSiAn nanoparticles prepared by Suzuki-miniemulsion polymerization is 10-40 nm from the TEM image, which facilitates the dispersion in the aqueous phase. Combined with the porosity and nanoparticle morphology, PSiAn nanoparticles realized the efficient photoluminescence (PL) sensing of nitroaromatic explosives in aqueous phase. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) of PSiAn nanoparticles for 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) detection in the pure aqueous phase are 0.33 μM and 1.11 μM, respectively. Meanwhile, the good selectivity and anti-interference in presence of other nitro-compounds were observed. Furthermore, the spike/recovery test for the TNP detection in real water samples by PL sensing based on PSiAn nanoparticles indicates the quantitative recovery of TNP from 100.74 % to 101.00 %. The electrochemical test, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra, excitation and emission spectra, and time-resolved PL spectra were investigated to explore the PL sensing mechanism. As a result, it is found that the fluorescence inner filter effect might be the predominant quenching mechanism during the detection of nitrophenolic compounds such as TNP and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP).

Keywords: 2; 4; 6-trinitrophenol; Conjugated porous polymers; Nanoparticles; Nitroaromatic explosives; PL sensing.