A rhodamine based nanosensor platform for Hg2+ sensing in near-perfect aqueous medium: Smartphone, test strip and real sample applications

Elmas Ş. N., Dinckan S., Arslan F. N., Aydin D., Savran T., Yilmaz I.

JOURNAL OF PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND PHOTOBIOLOGY A-CHEMISTRY, vol.421, 2021 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 421
  • Publication Date: 2021
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.jphotochem.2021.113521
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND PHOTOBIOLOGY A-CHEMISTRY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, BIOSIS, Chemical Abstracts Core, Chimica, INSPEC
  • Keywords: Rhodamine, Fluorescence organic nanoparticle, Mercury, Water sample, Smartphone, MERCURY(II) IONS, COLORIMETRIC DETECTION, SELECTIVE DETECTION, FLUORESCENT SENSOR, NAKED-EYE, QUANTIFICATION, CU2+, NANOPARTICLES, CHEMOSENSOR, INHIBITION
  • Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa Affiliated: No

Abstract

Herein, a rhodamine based nanosensor platform (RHD-NPs) was designed and prepared for the sensing of Hg2+ in the near-perfect aqueous medium (v/v, 0.01/99.99, acetone/water). The structure, aqueous stability, surface charge and particle size of RHD-NPs were analyzed by using zeta particle sizer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The spherical shaped morphology of RHD-NPs has 61.4 nm particule size. The interaction ability of RHD-NPs towards various heavy metal ions was evaluated with UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopies. After the transferring of Hg2+ to RHD-NPs, a new absorption band at 562 nm was observed due to the ring-opening mechanism of rhodamine structure. The remarkable emission enhancement at 582 nm was observed through the adding of Hg2+ because of chelation-enhanced fluorescence (CHEF) and aggregation-induced enhanced emission (AIEE) phenomena. RHD-NPs nanosensor system showed good selectivity for Hg2+ monitoring with a nanomolar-level detection limit of 6.56 nM. The binding constant of RHD-NPs with Hg2+ was determined to be 10.06 x 10(3) M-1 based on the Benesi-Hildebrand graph and a maximum value of Job's graph was about 0.5 ratio (1:1) between RHD-NPs and Hg2+.The smartphone-based technique revealed an outstanding potential of the RHD-NPs platform for the sensing of Hg2+ without further device. A visual colorimetric strip based on papers with excellent selectivity towards Hg2+ without interfering competition ions, was produced with the white-to-pink color signal change. The RHD-NPs was also employed for the quantitative determination and real-time monitoring of Hg2+ in real samples.