Rational design and construction of a mesoporous silica-supported ratiometric fluorescent probe for the sensitive detection of nicosulfuron

Haochi Liu; Xiangmin Lei; Lin Zhu; Ligang Chen; Lan Ding

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2025.127542

Rational design and construction of a mesoporous silica-supported ratiometric fluorescent probe for the sensitive detection of nicosulfuron

Talanta. 2025 Jan 4:286:127542. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2025.127542. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Haochi Liu¹, Xiangmin Lei², Lin Zhu³, Ligang Chen⁴, Lan Ding⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China; College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China.
² College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China.
³ Beijing Locomotive Depot of China Railway Beijing Group Co.Ltd, Beijing, 100080, China.
⁴ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Resource Utilization, Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China.
⁵ College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China. Electronic address: dinglan@jlu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39793177
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2025.127542

Abstract

The excessive use of pesticides is an urgent issue facing environmental sustainability and human health. In this study, a uniform dispersion size, good fluorescence performance and mesoporous structure of a ratiometric fluorescent probe were constructed for nicosulfuron detection. A solvent-free in situ solid-phase synthesis method was used to encapsulate biomass carbon dots within mesoporous silica (CDs@mSiO₂), followed by the modification of l-cysteine-modified manganese-doped zinc sulfide quantum dots (ZnS:Mn QDs), to construct a ratiometric fluorescent probe for highly sensitive and selective detection of nicosulfuron. This design effectively prevents the aggregation of CDs and reduces interference between the two fluorescent signals. Nicosulfuron detection had a low detection limit of 0.082 μM. Density functional theory calculations were carried out to uncover the specific interactions between nicosulfuron and ZnS:Mn QDs. The process of fluorescence quenching is ascribed to photoinduced electron transfer. This work offers a special strategy to produce a ratiometric fluorescent probe and illustrate the mechanism, which is crucial for sensing and environmental engineering.

Keywords: Biomass carbon dots; Density functional theory; Fluorescence quenching; Nicosulfuron; Ratiometric fluorescent probe.