Trace analysis of uranyl ion (UO2(2+)) in aqueous solution by fluorescence turn-on detection via aggregation induced emission enhancement effect

Xiaotong Chen; Linfeng He; Yang Wang; Bing Liu; Yaping Tang

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2014.07.016

Trace analysis of uranyl ion (UO2(2+)) in aqueous solution by fluorescence turn-on detection via aggregation induced emission enhancement effect

Anal Chim Acta. 2014 Oct 17:847:55-60. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2014.07.016. Epub 2014 Aug 4.

Authors

Xiaotong Chen¹, Linfeng He², Yang Wang³, Bing Liu⁴, Yaping Tang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 25261901
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2014.07.016

Abstract

A sensitive fluorescence turn-on method for trace amounts of uranyl ion (UO2(2+)) in solution has been developed in this study, based on aggregation induced emission enhancement (AIEE) characteristics of 4-pethoxycarboxyl salicylaldehyde azine (PCSA) induced by complex interaction between UO2(2+) and PCSA. Under optimized conditions, a fluorescence enhancement at 540 nm could be observed, which was linearly related to the concentration of UO2(2+) in the range of 1-25 ppb (part per billion). Analytical data showed that a detection limit of 0.2 ppb was achieved with the relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) 1.3% (n=5). The proposed method was successfully utilized in quantifying UO2(2+) in fuel processing wastewaters.

Keywords: Aggregation induced emission enhancement; Fluorescence turn-on detection; Schiff base; Uranyl ion detection.