Glucose detection via glucose-induced disaggregation of ammonium-modified tetraphenylethylene from polyanion

A fluorescent glucose probe designed by a new strategy was reported. The probe consisted of ammonium-modified tetraphenylethylene (TPEA) with the feature of aggregation-induced emission and phenylboronic acid-containing polyanion that induced aggregation of TPEA via electrostatic interaction. With adding glucose and glucose oxidase, the produced H 2 O 2 converted phenylboronic acid into weaker acid phenol, which reduced negatively charges on the polyanion, resulting in the disaggregation of TPEA. This probe well qualified glucose in the range from 4 to 50   μM with detection limit of 2.6   μM. Moreover, it exhibited excellent selectivity and was successfully applied to blood glucose detection. As far as we know, no report has been published on glucose detection based on acidity difference between phenylboronic acid and phenol.