Fluorescent sensor for bisphenol S based on pH adjustment and polydopamine nanoparticles

Initially, it was considered as a feasible solution to replace the harmful bisphenol A with structurally similar bisphenol S (BPS). However, with the deepening of research, BPS has also been pointed out to have similar endocrine-disrupting effects and physiological hazards to bisphenol A. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an efficient and convenient method for BPS detection. By combining pH adjustment and the polydopamine nanoparticles (DPA-PDs), which were synthesized according to a one-step hydrothermal method with dopamine hydrochloride as the precursor, a ratiometric fluorescence sensing platform for BPS has been constructed in this work. The analyte BPS has weak fluorescence in acidic and neutral environments. However, deprotonated BPS exhibits stronger fluorescence emission at 460 nm in an alkaline environment, and the synchronously enhanced absorption bands of BPS overlaps with both the excitation spectrum and emission spectrum of DPA-PDs. Consequently, the fluorescence of DPA-PDs can be quenched by BPS based on the inner filtration effect, and the intrinsic fluorescence of BPS is positively correlated with the concentration of BPS. The limit of detection for the single-signal sensing model based on the intrinsic fluorescence of BPS is as low as 0.075 μM, and the limit of detection for the ratiometric fluorescence sensing model based on the enhanced BPS versus quenched DPA-PDs is 0.257 μM. The proposed method does not require composite materials with complex preparation processes, and the advantages of sensitivity, rapidity and simplicity are conducive to the application in BPS monitoring.