A smartphone-compatible AIE fluorescent probe for benzoyl peroxide detection and fingerprint imaging

Benzoyl peroxide (BPO), a banned but illegally used flour additive, poses serious health risks. Current detection methods face challenges in on-site applications due to instrument dependency and complexity. We developed an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorescent probe (NMYF) for rapid, selective, and visual BPO detection. NMYF exhibits fast fluorescence quenching (<1 min), a low detection limit (0.91 μM), and high selectivity. Integrated into polyamide films and agarose gels, NMYF enables portable sensing platforms. Using smartphone-based RGB analysis, on-site BPO quantification was achieved with detection limits of 66.9 μM (NMYF-films) and 7.09 μM (NMYF-gels). NMYF-gels successfully detected BPO in wheat flour, noodles, and noodle sheets, with recoveries of 93.08-116.12% and RSDs below 8.75%. In addition, NMYF performed excellently on various substrates in latent fingerprint imaging, displaying Level 1-3 fingerprint details with high clarity. The bifunctionality of NMYF highlights its potential in both food safety and forensic science.