Highly sensitive fluorescent triarylimidazole derivatives for sensing of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol in aqueous solution and its application for actual environment detection

Two highly sensitive fluorescent triarylimidazole derivatives were synthesized by modifying imidazole with coumarin and large conjugate rigid plane structure. XM-F and XM-L emitted bright yellow-green fluorescent light. Their intense conjugation system generated strong n-n electrostatic interactions with TNP, accompanied by the formation of hydrogen bonds to achieve rapid detection of TNP within 25 s. The detection limits were as low as 0.049 IrM and 0.071 IrM, respectively. Probes had been successfully applied to rapid detection of TNP in real water samples and manufactured into portable fluorescent test strips. In view of excellent performance of XM-F, it was used to achieve real-time, portable, on-site quantitative detection of TNP by a colorimeter and a smart -phone platform. In addition, XM-F also successfully processed into probe-coated TLC plates for efficient detection of fingerprints contaminated with TNP.