Electrospun nanofiber sheets mixed with a novel triphenylamine-pyrenyl salicylic acid fluorophore for the selective detection of picric acid

Abstract

A novel tripod-shaped compound 2 was synthesized through the Sonograsira and the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction in 2 steps. Thus, cellulose acetate electrospun nanofiber sheets mixed with compound 2 were used for the detection of picric acid (PA). Compound 2 displayed the most sensitive fluorescence quenching reaction to picric acid (PA) among nitroaromatic compounds with a linear concentration range of 2.0–50 µM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.57 µM. In addition, the electrosphun nanofiber combined with compound 2 may be employed as a sensor to detect PA in the environment via an efficient fluorescence quenching resulting from the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process. Fluorescence mode and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to examine the selective interaction of sensors with PA. This compound 2 was successfully employed for selective detection of PA in water samples. Interestingly, compound 2 was designed for rapid naked-eye detection of PA under black light, high sensitivity, high selectivity, and convenience for on-site PA detection. Compound 2 demonstrated that these sensors might be used to construct novel detection devices for PA analysis in real samples.