Tripodal naphthalimide assembled novel AIE supramolecular fluorescent sensor for rapid and selective detection of picric acid

Abstract

In recent years, the detection of explosives has attracted increasing attention due to security and counter-terrorism issues. Therefore, it is particularly important to design and develop new methods and materials for detecting explosives. Herein, we report a novel aggregation-induced emission (AIE) supramolecuar fluorescent sensor based on a tripodal naphthalimide derivative (TNQ) for sensitive detection of the model explosive analogue picric acid (PA). The TNQ could self-assemble to a supramolecular system (S-TNQ) and show strong light blue AIE. The S-TNQ shows sensitive and selective response for PA. The detection limit (LOD) for PA was determined to be 4.73 × 10−8 M. Interestingly, the selective fluorescent response for PA is based on the competitive binding of PA with the TNQ, which destroyed the self-assembly and AIE of the S-TNQ. In addition, the solid powder of S-TNQ also showed recognition for PA under natural and UV irradiation by direct observation without instrumentation. The S-TNQ could serve as readily preparable, inexpensive, test kits for convenient detection PA.