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Updated: Mar 29, 2026
Qualitative Identification of Carboxylic Acids, Boronic Acids, and Amines Using Cruciform Fluorophores
Published on: August 19, 2013
Sensitive and selective turn-on fluorescence method for cetyltrimethylammonium bromide determination based on
Na Li1, Xia Hao1, Bei Hua Kang1
1Key Laboratory of Eco-environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
This work proposed a rapid and novel fluorescence-sensing system using a complex of acridine orange (AO) and polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) to sensitively recognize and monitor cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in an aqueous medium. AO can interact with PSS and a complex is formed via electrostatic attraction and hydrophobic interaction. The fluorescence of AO is greatly quenched after the introduction of PSS. Upon its subsequent addition, CTAB can interact and form a complex with PSS because the electrostatic attraction between CTAB and PSS is much stronger than that between AO and PSS, which results in significant fluorescence recovery. Interestingly, the proposed method can be applied for the discrimination and detection of surfactants with different hydrocarbon chain lengths due to their different binding affinity toward PSS. The detection limit for CTAB is as low as 0.2 µg/mL and the linear range is from 0.5 to 3.5 µg/mL. Moreover, we applied the sensor to the successful detection of CTAB in water samples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
