A unique triple-channel fluorescent probe for discriminative detection of cyanide, hydrazine, and hypochlorite

Herein, the first triple-channel fluorescent probe, TTB, excited at the same wavelength (lambda ex = 360 nm) in the same sensing medium for the detection and discrimination of cyanide, hydrazine, and hypochlorite, is disclosed. While a fluorescent white color appeared (lambda em = 470 nm) with the addition of cyanide ion into the probe so-lution, upon addition of hydrazine and hypochlorite, green (lambda em = 503 nm) and orange (lambda em = 585 nm) fluo-rescent colors, respectively, were observed. A naked-eye detection for the three ions was documented. With the appearance of orange color, a mega Stokes shift of 175 nm was observed. The probe exhibited excellent selec-tivity and lower detection limits of 0.24 mu M, 4.1 nM and 0.27 mu M, and dynamic ranges of 0.0-2.0 mu M, 0.0-0.05 mu M and 0.0-2.0 mu M for cyanide, hydrazine and hypochlorite, respectively. The sensing mechanism was inves-tigated through computational studies before and after the addition of cyanide, hypochlorite, and hydrazine, applying density functional theory (DFT), along with the calculation of optical properties by time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) method. The results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental values. Remarkably, the probe, TTB, successfully detected cyanide, hydrazine, and hypochlorite in complex water samples. Moreover, the detection of cyanide was successfully performed in apricot kernels, as well as hypochlorite in fruits and vegetables.