Novel (2,6-difluorobenzoyl)urea-activated fluorescent probe for fluorine-containing-pesticide detection

Fluorine-containing pesticides (FCPs) are widely employed in modern agriculture because of their good bioactivity. However, their harmful impacts on humans and the ecosystem are increasing persistently owing to their overcommitment and bioconcentration in water and the soil. Concurrently, as the molecular probes for detecting FCPs are extremely rare, a multifunctional probe, N-(purinyl)-2-chromene-3-carbohydrazide (PCC), was designed and synthesized in this study to simultaneously detect two FCPs, teflubenzuron and fluazuron. PCC exhibited good sensitivity and selectivity toward both substances based on the supramolecular interaction driven by intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Furthermore, the detection limits for teflubenzuron and fluazuron were as low as 91.6 and 43.2 nM, respectively. Additionally, PCC could detect teflubenzuron in real water samples and detect ferric ions (Fe3+) in living cells, with low cytotoxicity. This method for detecting FCP and Fe3+ exhibited great potential for its mild conditions and facile operation; moreover, it did not require any pretreatment and large instruments. Thus, this study presents a novel probe and a convenient method for detecting teflubenzuron and fluazuron with good sensitivity and via a facile operation, which are conducive and may be employed in environmental analysis.