A New Fluorescent Turn-on Dual Interaction Position Probe for Determination of Hydrazine

Hydrazine is an important catalyst and chemical raw material. But it is highly toxic and potentially carcinogenic. We designed a new hydrazine probe based on a synergistic effect by introducing acetate and phthalimide into 2-phenylbenzimidazole (PBI). Comparative experiments proved that “the dual position interaction” had a “synergistic effect” on fluorescence enhancement. The fluorescence enhancement caused by the probe (15.0 fold) is much larger than the sum of the fluorescence enhancement of the two monomer compounds (2.6 and 1.4 folds, respectively). A theoretical calculation showed an inhibition of the PET process and a recovery of the ICT process led to a fluorescence enhancement. The probe was specific to hydrazine and showed a linear response to it in the concentrations range of 0.2–200 μM with a LOD of 0.062 μM (1.99 ppb). Moreover, the probe could detect hydrazine in tap water; the recovery of hydrazine from the tap water was between 98.86–103.28%.