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Simultaneous visual detection of multiple heavy metal ions by a high-throughput fluorescent probe

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Abstract

To develop simultaneous and in-situ detection techniques towards Cr(VI) and Mn(II), Eu/Tb@CDs with white fluorescence were prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method. With the increase of Cr(VI), all fluorescence channels of Eu/Tb@CDs exhibited obvious quenching, and the detection limit (LOD) was 0.10 μM. In the presence of Mn(II), only the fluorescence from Tb and Eu was quenched, while the fluorescence of CDs was not effected. The LOD for Mn(II) was 0.16 μM. More importantly, in the actual water samples where Cr(VI) and Mn(II) coexist, Eu/Tb@CDs can realize their rapid and simultaneous detection by simple spectral calculation. The selective and competitive experiments have also confirmed that the detection of Cr(VI) and Mn(II) was not interfered by common pollutants in groundwater. It is undeniable that the simultaneous detection of multiple targets by one probe not only greatly improves the detection efficiency, but also has important significance for the field monitoring of water quality parameters.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42107085, 51878633), the “Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”, the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (No. 2021M703006) and Postdoctoral Innovation Research Foundation of Hubei Province of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Huachao Che, Xike Tian, Wei Chen, Chu Dai, Yulun Nie, Yong Li & Liqiang Lu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Xike Tian & Yulun Nie

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Correspondence to Yulun Nie.

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Che, H., Tian, X., Chen, W. et al. Simultaneous visual detection of multiple heavy metal ions by a high-throughput fluorescent probe. Microchim Acta 190, 311 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-023-05882-0

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