A simple AIE probe to pesticide trifluralin residues in aqueous phase: Ultra-fast response, high sensitivity, and quantitative detection utilizing a portable platform

The threat from pesticide trifluralin residues to ecological environment and public health is becoming a growing problem. Thus, rapid and sensitive detection, particularly a simple and portable detected platform for trifluralin residues, are highly desired. Here, a small organic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) molecule (TPETPy) is facilely synthesized and applied to detect trifluralin both in lab and in actual water systems. Based on the photo-induced electron transfer (PET) mechanism, the emissive peak of TPETPy located at 475 nm in tetrahydrofuran (THF)/water mixture (ƒw = 90 %) under the excitation of 340 nm, decreases dramatically upon trace trifluralin addition and exhibits ultra-fast response (3 s), high sensitivity and selectivity, and good anti-interference ability. The fluorescence sensing correlation with the concentration of trifluralin shows good linearity in the range of 20–90 μg L−1 with the limit of detection of 6.28 μg L−1. Moreover, a portable smartphone-integrated detected platform based on fluorescent pattern Red/Green/Blue (RGB) values is first employed to realize the real-time and on-site quantitative fluorescent detection of trifluralin in actual water sources, featuring good accuracy and reproducibility. Hereby, this work provides not only a highly efficient trifluralin residues fluorescent probe but also a portable and straightforward operating platform to detect trifluralin pesticides quantitatively.