Rhodamine Derivative Functionalized Magnetic Nano-Platform for Cu²⁺ Sensing and Removal

Abstract

Pollution caused by copper is one of the key factors of environment contamination. As one of heavy metals, copper is hard to decompose in nature, the biological enrichment of which may lead to severe damage to health. Cu2+ detection, thus, possesses a bright application prospect both in environment protection and in human health. In this paper, a dual-functional fluorescence-magnetic composite nano-platform has been designed to sensitively detect, meanwhile capture and remove Cu2+ in the solution of water and ethanol (1:1, v/v). The core-shell structure nanoparticle synthesized by using Fe3O4 as core and SiO2 as shell, is covalently bonded with rhodamine derivatives on the silica layer to construct the nano-platform. The emission is increased upon the addition of Cu2+, showing fluorescence turn on effect for the detection, and the limit of detection which was as low as 1.68 nM. Meanwhile, Cu2+ ions are captured by the coordination with rhodamine derivatives, and can be removable with the help of magnetic field.