Antibiotic
pollution has become a serious problem due to concerns
about sustainability and the environment. Ofloxacin (OFL) is an important
antibiotic, which is used widely in the treatment of human and animal
diseases, resulting in large-scale production and aggregation in the
environment. A facile and high-performance method for detecting OFL
is valuable for practical reasons. Herein, a novel CDs/Eu3+-based molecularly imprinted polymer fluorescent probe (CDs/Eu3+@MIP) was successfully synthesized using ionic liquid-functionalized
carbon dots (IL@CDs) as the functional monomer and ofloxacin (OFL)
as the template molecule. This probe exhibited excellent fluorescent
properties. Under optimal conditions, CDs/Eu3+@MIP displayed
outstanding detection performance for OFL. The limit of detection
was as low as 0.25 nM. Furthermore, the detection mechanism of the
fluorescent probe was also discussed. The lanthanide luminescence
intensity increased significantly with the addition of OFL, which
was observed as a deeper red color with the naked eye. The mechanism
of detecting OFL was exposure to the efficient energy transfer from
OFL to Eu3+ through the antenna effect. In particular,
the probe demonstrated high selectivity toward OFL due to combining
molecular imprinting technology. This first reported fluorescent sensing
material based on CDs/Eu3+@MIP provides a promising scheme
for highly sensitive detection of antibiotic OFL.
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