Abstract
As a virtually indispensable metal ion for biological environments and human life, deficiency or accumulation of Fe3+ in the body can induce various biological disorders. It is of great significance to develop a rapid, reproducible, highly sensitive, and selective method for detecting Fe3+ ions. Herein, a kind of novel nanofibrous membrane prepared by electrospinning utilizing carboxyl-functionalized poly(arylene ether nitrile) (CPEN) as carrier of lanthanide sensor can serve as a simple and reliable fluorescence platform for identifying Fe3+ ions. The CPEN-Eu3+-Phen nanofibrous membrane emitted intense red fluorescence under UV irradiation with high quantum efficiency of 22.3%. Furthermore, CPEN-Eu3+-Phen exhibited excellent fluorescence stability under the NaCl concentrations of 0-1.0 M and pH of 1-14, ascribed to exceptional chemical durability of CPEN. Notably, the CPEN-Eu3+-Phen implied excellent reusable performance for detecting Fe3+ ions with more than 10 cycles of reuse. Moreover, the red fluorescence of nanofibrous membrane is notably quenched with addition of Fe3+ ions, and the detection limit for Fe3+ in aqueous solution is as low as 3.8 mu M. More importantly, CPEN-Eu3+-Phen nanofibrous membrane can also be applied to the detection of Fe3+ ions in real lake water. In brief, these results indicated that CPEN-Eu3+-Phen nanofibrous membrane is expected to behave as a promising Fe3+ ion sensing material with high selectivity, sensitivity, and reusability in aqueous solution.