Dansyl-labelled cellulose as dual-functional adsorbents for elimination and detection of mercury in aqueous solution via aggregation-induced emission

Dansyl chloride fluorophore exhibits typical aggregation induced fluorescence emission behavior in acetone/water solution. To realize the integration of detective and adsorptive functions, dansyl chloride is covalently immobilized on cellulose substrate to fabricate an efficient adsorbent for mercury ions in water. The as-prepared material exhibits excellent fluorescence sensing performance exclusively for Hg (II) with the presence of other metal ions . A sensitive and selective fluorescence quenching across the concentration range of 0.1–8.0 mg/L is observed with a detection limit of 8.33 × 10 −9  M as a result of the inhibition of aggregation induced emission caused by the coordination between adsorbent and Hg (II). Besides, the adsorption properties for Hg (II) including the influence of initial concentration and contact time are investigated. Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order kinetics are demonstrated to fit well with the adsorption experiment for the uptake of Hg (II) by the functionalized adsorbent, also, intraparticle diffusion kinetic model is proved to aptly describe the Hg (II) removal in aqueous solution. In addition, the recognition mechanism is considered to originate from the Hg (II) triggered structural reversals of naphthalene ring units which are verified by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation. Moreover, the synthesis method used in this work also provides a strategy for the sensing application of organic sensor molecules with AIE properties in which the aggregated behavior could be appropriately realized.