Fluorescent polymer nanotubes as bifunctional materials for selective sensing and fast removal of picric acid

Abstract It is an urgent need to develop a bifunctional material for simultaneously sensing and removing explosives, because it is closely related to safety, environmental pollution and the health of human beings. Here, we have synthesized three porous organic polymer nanotubes (PNTs, PNT-4, PNT-5 and PNT-6) through Yamamoto coupling reaction. Results indicate that the three PNTs can be used not only as a fluorescent probe for high selective and sensitive sensing of picric acid (PA) in real-time, but also as an excellent adsorbent for fast removal of PA from water. PNTs exhibit extremely high sensitivity for PA and the limit of detection concentration is lower than 2.36 × 10 −9 M, and fluorescent quenching behavior of PNTs for PA can be well explained by the absorption competition quenching (ACQ) mechanism proposed in our previous literature. Moreover, the saturated adsorption capacities of PNT-4, PNT-5 and PNT-6 for PA reach 260.2, 200.5, and 178.8 mg/g, respectively. In short, the bifunctional properties of these PNTs for sensing and removing PA provide a useful strategy to find the PA pollution and further remove it in practical applications.