A chemiluminescent probe for highly sensitive detection of trifluralin based on cobalt ion-complexed boron nitride quantum dots as efficient nanocatalysts

Abstract

Trifluralin is a hazardous herbicide and its residual in the environment has irreversible effects for humans and other organisms, so its environmental monitoring is of particular importance. In this work, a highly sensitive chemiluminescence (CL)-based probe was developed for this purpose. Boron nitride quantum dots (BNQDs), complexed with Co2+ ions were used as efficient CL nanocatalysts for the reaction of pyrogallol with H2O2. It was found that BNQD-Co2+ can amplify the CL signal of this reaction as great as 2000 times, while the enhancement factor with BNQDs and Co2+ alone was 40 and 25, respectively. This effect was attributed to the formation of the BNQD-Co2+ complex with tremendous catalytic action on the oxidation of pyrogallol by H2O2. In the presence of trifluralin, because of its possible optical and chemical interactions with the probe, the CL signal considerably decreased. Therefore, the enhanced CL system was exploited as a sensitive probe to determine trifluralin. The linear range of the probe for trifluralin was 20 nM − 90 µM, with a detection limit of 6.0 nM. It was employed for the interference-free and accurate analysis of water and soil samples.