A lanthanide luminescent sensor doped polymer dots for ratiometric fluorescence detection of hydrogen sulfide

As one of the indexes of food freshness, hydrogen sulfide content is closely related to food spoilage. A dual-emission sensor for H2S detection was reported in this paper. Poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4phenylenevinylene] Polymer dots (MEH-PPV-Pdots) were prepared by copolymer of poly [2-methoxy-5-(2ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] and styrene-maleic anhydride. The sensor was obtained by embedding purple MEH-PPV-Pdots in a green MOF. The accommodated MEH-PPV-Pdots were considered as the reference signal, while copper ions on the host skeleton served as accessible reaction sites, allowing MEH-PPV-Pdots/ Tb0.99Cu0.01-MOF to selectively sense H2S. The sensor exhibited reduced green fluorescence and proportional response to H2S. Because H2S can transfer charge on copper ions and thus affect the green light emitted by rare earth ions. The results showed that the sensor had good stability to H2S in HEPES buffer, fast response, obvious color change, high selectivity and sensitivity. The sensor has been applied to the detection of aquatic products, showing good visualization effect.