Tröger's base-containing fluorenone organic polymer for discriminative fluorescence sensing of sulfamethazine antibiotic at ppb level in the water medium†

Abstract

A new Tröger's base containing fluorenone organic polymer (TB-FL-COP) was synthesized and used as a fluorescence sensor for discriminative sensing of antibiotics in water. TB-FL-COP showed the highest fluorescence quenching, reversible sensing responses, and excellent sensitivity of 56 ppb level for sulfamethazine antibiotics. The Stern–Volmer quenching constant (K_SV) was calculated to be 1.2 × 10⁶ M⁻¹. The fluorescence sensing ability was also reflected by sharp visual color changes and further demonstrated in real water samples.