Deep Eutectic Solvent-Based Highly Sensitive Turn-On Fluorescent Probe for D₂O

Owing to the importance of heavy water in spectroscopy, nuclear energy generation, chemical characterization, and biological industry, a design of a robust, cheap, nontoxic, and sensitive D₂O sensor is very important. In this work, taking advantage of the singular emission fluorescence of the deep eutectic solvent prepared in our laboratory, we propose a first of its kind highly sensitive turn-on fluorescent sensor to effectively sense D₂O at an ultratrace level based on rapid exchange of the labile DES proton with deuterium. This method can be used as a full-range heavy water detection strategy with a limit of detection of 0.079% (v/v) or 870 ppm. The isotopic purity (IP) obtained from DES fluorescence measurements is also in close agreement with that of the conventional FT-IR method. The current DES-based sensor thus allows both sensing and isotopic purity of D₂O and can serve as one of the most sensitive monitoring strategies for heavy water analysis.