HPAMAM/PMMA composite electrospun film for cobalt ion detection in water environments

Nonconjugated fluorescent polymers are an important class of fluorescent materials for the detection of heavy metal ions. However, the utilization of nonconjugated fluorescent polymer to fabricate film-type detector is mostly limited due to their branched molecular structure. Here in this article, a film-type detector from hyperbranched fluorescent poly(amido amine) (HPAMAM) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was fabricated through electrospinning to detect cobalt ion in aqueous solution. The HPAMAM/PMMA composite film can respond to Co 2+ ions with high sensitivity and selectivity. Moreover, the fluorescence quenching obeys the Stern-Volmer law in a linear range of 1–50 μM. This work provides an effective route to fabricate film-type detectors from nonconjugated fluorescent polymers.