A novel water soluble multifunctional fluorescent probe for highly sensitive and ultrafast detection of anionic surfactants and wash free imaging of Gram-positive bacteria strains

Anionic surfactants are widely used in detergents, cosmetics, medicine and other industries, but the residue in the water can pollute the water quality and destruct aquatic ecosystems. Thus, to develop a rapid, sensitive and selective strategy for detection of anionic surfactants is of great importance. Herein, we rationally designed and synthesized a novel fluorescent dye TPIM-ClO4 with excellent characters based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE). TPIM-ClO4 exhibited many incomparable characteristics including large Stokes shifts (225 nm), long wavelength emission (650 nm), excellent water solubility and stability. It was demonstrated to be excellent probe for detection of sodium dodecyl sulfate with fast-responding (40 s), good selectivity and extremely low detection limit 48 nM (13.07 μg/L), which ascribe to the formation of tightly packed nanoaggregates in situ based on synergistic electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. TPIM-ClO4 was further successfully used to the detection of sodium dodecyl sulfate in real water samples with satisfactory results. Furthermore, probe TPIM-ClO4 was also successfully applied for specific fluorescent imaging of Gram-positive bacteria without washing steps. This study may provide new strategy in designing AIE-based fluorescent probe for environmental monitoring and microbial analysis application.