Abstract:
The development of a novel chemo-sensor for the detection of Al3+ with high sensitivity in aqueous
solution is widely considered an important research goal because of the importance of such probes in
medicine, living systems and the environment. In this work, we describe a new fluorescent probe,
a Schiff's base N,N0
-propylenebis(salicylimine) (salpn) as fluorescent organic nanoparticles for Al3+. The
study shows that salpn detects Al3+ with the detection limit as low as 1.24 103 mM, indicating that
the chemo-sensor has high sensitivity in aqueous medium, and the fluorescence intensity increases with
the increasing Al3+ concentration in the presence of the salpn-ONPs which act as chemo-sensors. The
interference of common coexistent metal ions such as Mn2+, Mg2+, Co2+, Fe3+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Sr2+, Ag+,
Sm3+, Al3+, Cd2+, Ba2+, Na+ and K+ was tested, showing that salpn-ONPs efficiently detect Al3+ ions with
small interference from Cu2+ and Cr3+. Finally, the efficiency of salpn to as a fluorescent probe for Al ion
in living systems was evaluated in Gram-negative and Gram positive bacteria, and con-focal laser
scanning microscopy confirms its utility that this chemo-sensor efficiently detects Al3+ ion in
Staphylococcus aureus enclosed by a single membrane.
