A reaction-based fluorescent probe for detecting o-phenylenediamine in water and lateritic soil samples

Abstract We herein report a reaction-based switch-on fluorescent probe for the detection of o-phenylenediamine (OPD) in real samples. The fluorescent quinoxaline can be formed via a tandem substitution-cyclization-aromatization reaction between 2-bromo-1-(naphthalen-2-yl) ethanone (BNEO) and OPD at rt without any catalyst. BNEO exhibited a maximum 110-fold of fluorescence enhancement upon the addition of OPD. The applicability for the detection of OPD has been successfully demonstrated in real samples including river water from the Ganjiang river, rainwater, tap water and lateritic soils from Ganzhou.