Cu2+/ATP reversible ratiometric fluorescent probe through strip, hydrogel, and nanofiber, and its application in living cells and edaphic ecological safety assessment

Abstract Specific and visual detection of copper ion (Cu2+) and ATP was critical for environmental and biological fields. In this work, a new rhodol-based ratiometric fluorescent probe for the reversible recognition of Cu2+ and ATP was designed under theoretical analysis. The Cu2+/ATP-induced emission intensity showed linearly proportional to the Cu2+/ATP concentration (0.0-10.0 μM) with the low detection limit of 0.11 μM/0.08 μM. Due to its excellent spectral properties, the reversible detection of Cu2+ and ATP was exploited through test strips and hydrogel. More importantly, Electrospun PMMA doped with the probe was constructed as a fluorescent sensing platform for specific and visual detection of Cu2+ under UV lamp by the naked eyes and the fluorescent sensing platform could be efficiently regenerated and recycled for several times by the treatment with ATP solution. Furthermore, the probe was applied to visualize Cu2+ and ATP in living cells and determine the content of Cu2+ in real soil samples which demonstrated the first reported probe for Cu2+ with application in edaphic ecological safety assessment. We prospected that this present work could promote the potential applications of fluorescent sensing platform in multifunctional environmental and biological portable sensing devices.