Bioinspired Fluorescent Nanosheets for Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Organic Pollutants in Water

Detection of organic pollutants in aqueous media is crucial for guaranteeing water safety. Conventional methods for organic pollutant detection suffer from time-consuming operation procedures (on the order of hours) and expensive devices. Inspired by dog noses, herein, we constructed self-assembled fluorescent nanosheets for rapid and sensitive detection of organic pollutants based on the grasp-report strategy. Tetraphenylethene decorated cyclodextrins (TPE-CDs) self-assembled into nanosheets with hydrophobic TPE layers sandwiched between two hydrophilic cyclodextrin layers. The hydrophobic cavity of the outer cyclodextrin layers grasped and collected organic pollutants, and subsequently transported them to the TPE layers and quenched the fluorescence emission of TPE layers. Such nanosheets allowed rapid detection of xylene (on the order of seconds) at a concentration of 5 μg/L. With the merits of the ease of synthesis, simple operation, and high sensitivity, the fluorescent nanomaterials provide a promising candidate for rapid and sensitive detection of organic pollutants.