Abstract
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•Facile synthesis of APTES coated Eu2O3 nanoparticles was done.•Templating effect of APTES has provided water solubility to Eu2O3 nanoparticles.•APTES template has provided superior rate of Eu2O3 resistance towards photo-bleaching.•APTES coating has provided better control over the optical and luminescence properties of Eu2O3 nanoparticles.•Fluorescence properties of APTES@ Eu2O3 nanoparticles used for sensing aromatic nitro compounds.•Fabricated sensor exhibited high performance for real sample detection.
The current work deals with the synthesis of bare and surface modified Europium oxide (Eu2O3) nanoparticles in aqueous-media. The synthesized Eu2O3 possess intense fluorescence-emission-peak between 350 and 500 nm when excited at 338 nm. Due to the presence of surface-modification with (3-aminopropyltriethexoysilane) APTES, the synthesized Eu2O3 showed high-selectivity to detect aromatic nitro-compounds through quenched fluorescence emission. The emission-peak intensity of Eu2O3 was found to be quenched with increasing concentration of aromatic-nitro-compounds. Thereby, detection-limit of 4.6 μM, 0.9 μM and 0.12 μM was obtained for 2-nitrophenol (PNP), 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) and 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP). The sensing aptitude of nanosensor was subsequently evaluated in spiked-water-samples, suggesting the effectiveness of sensor for assaying of nitro-compounds in real-samples.