ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Design and synthesis of aggregation-caused quenching and aggregation-induced emission fluorescent nanoparticles for highly sensitive determination of metal ions

Nana Yan, Qiaoling Wang, Kaimin Chen, Yi Qu, and Shaoguo Wen

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: kmchen@sues.edu.cn

Received: 13 January 2022  Accepted: 5 July 2022

Abstract:

At present, there is a serious challenge to prepare fluorescent nanoparticles with excellent stability, low toxicity, and low detection limits in ion detection. In this work, two kinds of fluorescent nanoparticles with different fluorescent molecules, the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ)-based PS@PAA@5-AF and the aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-based PS@P(AA-co-TPEAM), were prepared. The fluorescent properties and stability were studied and ions detection was carried out and found that each of them holds its own characteristics in these aspects. The results showed that the increase in the TPEAM dosage made the fluorescence intensity increase gradually by fluorescence spectrophotometer for PS@P(AA-co-TPEAM), while the fluorescence intensity of PS@PAA@5-AF increased first and then burst off. Subsequently, they were applied to the detection of Cu²⁺ and Fe³⁺, and the detection limits obtained were 64 nM and 25 nM, respectively. Then, fluorescent nanoparticles with ACQ and AIE effect with tunable intensity and uniform distribution are prepared, which have many potential applications in ion detection, biological imaging, etc.

Graphical abstract

Keywords: Aggregation-caused quenching; Aggregation-induced emission; Nanoparticle; Ion detection

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02362-2

Chemical Papers 76 (11) 6879–6889 (2022)