ABSTRACT Hypochlorite (ClO–), a strong oxidizing agent, is widely used in household and industrial disinfectant products, as well as in the treatment of drinking water and swimming pools. However, elevated concentrations can cause tissue damage and have been associated with various health issues. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of methods for the qualitative and/or quantitative determination of this agent in various samples. In this study, we report the design and synthesis of a novel fluorescent probe bearing thiomethyl groups ( SMAK ) for the selective detection of ClO–. SMAK was prepared in methanolic solution under basic conditions or solvent‐free by grinding the reagents with a mortar and pestle. It exhibits a “turn‐off” fluorescence response upon interaction with hypochlorite, with high selectivity over common anions, cations, and other oxidants and a limit of detection value of 0.99 µM. The response can be observed by naked eye, but the quantitative determination is achieved by the quenching of fluorescence intensity with a fast response time (<10 min). The sensing mechanism was investigated by LC/MS and FT‐IR experiments along with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Finally, the probe was successfully applied for the detection of ClO – in real tap and bottled water samples.
Matiadis et al. (Mon,) studied this question.