Fluorescence Emission of Polyethylenimine-Derived Polymer Dots and Its Application to Detect Copper and Hypochlorite Ions

Polymer dots with nonconjugated groups that are facile to synthesize and environmentally friendly generally attract substantial interest. However, their fluorescence-emitting mechanisms are not clear. In this paper, nonconjugated polymer dots (N-PDs) are synthesized by amidation reaction between polyethylenimine (PEI) and citric acid (CA), then self-assemble into rice-like dots in aqueous phase with a high fluorescence quantum yield. Such nitrogen-containing nonconjugated compounds N-PDs are believed to be inherently fluorescent, and the reported reasons for fluorescence-emitting are discussed. Importantly, these N-PDs can be used as an excellent fluorescent probe to detect Cu2+ and ClO– in aqueous solutions. Cu2+ could combine with the PEI moiety of the N-PDs to form a copper amine complex and then quench the fluorescence by an internal filtration effect. ClO– could oxidize the hydroxyl groups on the surface of the N-PDs to form a positive charge, blocking electron transfer between the hydroxyl groups and the chromophore groups. Finally, the sensor was successfully applied to the detection of Cu2+ and ClO– in environmental water samples.