title: Lanthanide based dual-emission fluorescent probe for detection of mercury (II) in milk.
abstract: It is highly desirable to develop a simple and sensitive method for Hg(2+) detection because of the dangerous nature of Hg(2+). In this work, we prepared a dual-emission fluorescent probe for Hg(2+) detection by combining two lanthanide chelates with different emission wavelengths. Green-emitting terbium (Tb(3+)) chelates as reference signals were embedded into SiO2 nanoparticles and red-emitting europium (Eu(3+)) chelates as response units were covalently linked to the surface of silica shell. Upon the addition of Hg(2+), the fluorescence of Eu(3+) chelates can be selectively quenched, while the fluorescence of Tb(3+) chelates remained unchanged. As a kind of Hg(2+) nanosensor, the dual-emission fluorescent probe exhibited excellent selectivity to Hg(2+) and high sensitivity up to 7.07 nM detection limit. The Hg(2+) levels in drinking water and milk samples were determined by using the dual-emission fluorescent probe with satisfied recovery. Additionally, our probe has a long enough fluorescence lifetime, which can avoid the interference from autofluorescence of the biological samples. We envision that the proposed probe could find great potential applications for ultrasensitive time-resolved fluorometric assays and biomedical imaging in the future.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Small Organic Molecule, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Jiangxi Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, PR China. Electronic address: hltan@jxnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongliang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Small Organic Molecule, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Jiangxi Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, PR China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Small Organic Molecule, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Jiangxi Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, PR China.
authors.forename: Chanjiao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Small Organic Molecule, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Jiangxi Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, PR China.
authors.forename: Yonghai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Small Organic Molecule, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Jiangxi Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, PR China.
authors.forename: Fugang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Small Organic Molecule, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Jiangxi Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, PR China.
authors.forename: Shouhui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Small Organic Molecule, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Jiangxi Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, PR China. Electronic address: lwanggroup@aliyun.com.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D028581:Lanthanoid Series Elements / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D028581:Lanthanoid Series Elements; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Dual-emission; Fluorescent probe; Lanthanide; Mercury (II); Milk