A simple AIE chemosensor based on diphenyl imidazole scaffold for 2,4,6-trinitrophenol detection and dye absorption

Fluorescent material exhibiting aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has demonstrated to be a facile and effective method to detect 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) due to its excellent features. In this study, a novel diphenyl imidazole-based fluorescent material (DINP) was successfully synthesized via a facile method. Fluorescence spectra showed that DINP had a typical AIE effect in DMSO/water solution, and the fluorescence emission was effectively quenched by TNP without being affected by other explosives. The Stern-Volmer quenching constant of 2.70 × 10⁵ M^-1 and detection limit of 7.2 × 10^-8 M demonstrated that the DINP aggregates could serve as potential chemosensor for TNP detection. The mechanism behind the quenching of fluorescence could be ascribed to the formation of ground state complex. In addition, fluorescent test strips and TLC plate prepared with the aggregates provided an easy and low cost method for TNP detection in the aqueous solution. Especially, DINP was applied to quantitatively detect the content of TNP in real water samples. Furthermore, the aggregates exhibited good selective adsorptive performance to rhodamine B dye in aqueous solution with high adsorption efficiency of 98 % in a few minutes.