A fluorescent probe of uranyl for acid and high water system and imaging in living cells

Abstract

Uranium mining, refining and spent fuel reprocessing are mostly carried out in an acidity and high water ratio environment. But there are currently fewer fluorescent probes that can meet this requirement. For this purpose, it is a urgent problem to design and synthesis fluorescent sensor for detection of uranium in these conditions. A novel triphenylamine-based fluorescent sensor (USC-001) has been design and prepared for the detection of uranyl ions in acidic and high water ratio environments and biologic samples. And even though the concentration of other metal ions is 5 times higher than that of uranyl ions, the probe is still have good selectivity to UO22+. In addition, a large number of auxiliary simulation calculations and experiment not only reveal the mechanism of the influence of water ratio on the change of the fluorescence spectrum, but also propose the mechanism and coordination mode of USC-001 for identifying UO22+. Furthermore, USC-001 has been successfully used to detect uranyl ions in actual water samples and biological cells.