Development of a novel fluorescent probe for the detection of glyphosate in food and water samples and the construction of a smartphone-assisted platform

The extensive use of glyphosate has been a severe threat to the environment and human health, which highlights the importance of the detection of glyphosate in various environmental and food samples. Herein, a novel fluorescent probe (DT-Gly) was constructed for the detection of glyphosate. DT-Gly and glyphosate binding to copper ions (Cu2+) is competitive. Therefore, the increased glyphosate will decrease DT-Gly binds to Cu2+. Accordingly, the absorbance (at 507 nm) and fluorescence (at 580 nm) intensity of DT-Gly showed excellent linear relationships with glyphosate concentrations (0-20 mu M). Moreover, the detection limits of DT-Gly for Cu2+ and glyphosate were 94 nM and 71 nM, respectively. DT-Gly was successfully applied to detect glyphosate in food samples and water samples. We further constructed a convenient platform for the detection of glyphosate by analyzing the changes in RGB values of the probe solution and test strips using a smartphone.