A Specific Turn-On Fluorescent Sensing for Ultrasensitive and Selective Detection of Phosphate in Environmental Samples Based on Antenna Effect-Improved FRET by Surfactant

Phosphate is not only an important indicator for aquatic ecosystems, but also plays vital roles in biosystems. A new strategy for ultrasensitive and selective detection of phosphate is fabricated based on a new insight found in this paper, in which a lower concentration of surfactant sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) can greatly induce fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from ciprofloxacin (CIP) to Eu3+ in the CIP-Eu3+ complex. Surfactant SDBS does not act as a sensitizer for enhancing the fluorescence intensity of the system, but acts as a sensitizer of FRET and makes the native fluorescence of CIP quenched completely (switch off). Eu3+ ions can coordinate with the oxygen-donor atoms of phosphate, which weakens FRET from CIP to Eu3+ and results in the fluorescence recovery of CIP (turn on). The multicomplex of the CIP-Eu3+-phosphate has more sensitive fluorescent response than that of the reported coordination nanoparticle-based fluorescent probes. The LOD (S/N = 3) of this sensing system can attain 4.3 nM. The possible interferential substances existing in environmental samples, such as 17 common metal ions, 11 anions, and fulvic acid investigated, do not interfere with the phosphate detection. This sensing system has been successfully applied for phosphate detection in environmental samples such as wastewater, surface water, and atmospheric particulates. This work not only develops a fluorescent probe for the phosphate detection, but also provides a new strategy for designing fluorescent probes based on FRET or coordination nanoparticles.