Phenanthroimidazole-based fluorescence probe for discriminative detecting of hydrazine and bisulfite and its...

Hydrazine (N₂H₄) and bisulfite (HSO₃^-) detection methods are urgently needed due to its harmful to the human health and environment safety. Herein, we reported a dual-response fluorescence probe EPC, which is capable of sequential detection of N₂H₄ and HSO₃^- by two different fluorescence signals. The probe EPC itself showed yellow florescence. In presence of N₂H₄, probe EPC exhibited an obviously fluorescence change (from yellow to green). However, a new addition product came into being after probe EPC mixed with HSO₃^-, followed with weak yellow emission. More important, probe EPC exhibited excellent fluorescence response properties for N₂H₄ and HSO₃^-, such as high sensitivity (0.182 µM for N₂H₄, 0.093 µM for HSO₃^-), rapid response (55 s for N₂H₄, 45 s for HSO₃^-), excellent selectivity and anti-interference performance. The sensing mechanisms for N₂H₄ and HSO₃^- were proved by ¹H NMR and MS spectra. Practical applications were studied. EPC based test paper can be utilized for quantitative detecting N₂H₄ in actual water samples. And, probe EPC has been successfully applied to recognize N₂H₄ contaminant in soil samples. Moreover, EPC has great potential to be used to detect HSO₃^- in real food samples.