Benzothiazole-Based Fluorescent Probe DYH for 2,4,6-Trinitrophenol Detection: Environmental Water Analysis and Smartphone-Based Sensing

In this study, a benzothiazole-based fluorescent probe, (methyl ( E )-2-(3-(benzo[ d ]thiazol-2-yl)-2-hydroxy-5-me$thylbenzylidene) hydrazine-1-carboxylate) ( DYH) , was investigated for the possibility of sensitive detection of potentially threatening explosives (2, 4, 6-trinitrophenol) TNP and its application. The probe exhibited blue-green fluorescence in methanol solution and its intensity decreased significantly with increasing TNP concentration, achieving a fluorescence quenching efficiency of up to 99.77%. The binding between the probe and TNP followed a stoichiometric ratio of 1:1, achieving a detection limit of approximately 2.1 × 10 –7  M, indicating its high detection sensitivity. Further studies have shown that the DYH was excellent in rapidly detecting TNP, and its application in natural water samples and solid phase papers validated its usefulness. In addition, this study successfully combined the probe DYH with smartphone technology, establishing a convenient smartphone sensing platform that provides a more convenient solution for rapid and real-time detection of TNP.