Fluorescent Determination of Mercury(II) Using Rhodamine B Immobilized on Polystyrene Microspheres

A novel microsphere-based fluorescent sensor 1 for determination of Hg(II) in food samples has been successfully synthesized and its fluorescent sensing properties were investigated in detail. Polystyrene microsphere was innovatively surface modified by a rhodamine derivative; therefore sensor 1 was a fluorescent sensor with high polymer material properties of polystyrene and the optical properties of a fluorescent probe. Sensor 1 displayed high selectivity, good anti-interference performance, and instantaneous response to Hg(II). The fluorescence intensity of sensor 1 showed a linear response to Hg(II) in the concentration range of 0?µM to 8?µM with a detection limit of 0.439?µM. The most valuable advantage was that sensor 1 was recyclable and environmentally-friendly. This proposed sensor 1 was applied to monitor the content of Hg(II) in real food samples, such as tap water, rice, and anglerfish. The recovery range of tap water was from 92.60 to 105.80%, the recovery range of rice was from 90.45 to 106.10%, and the recovery range of anglerfish was from 91.30 to 105.84%. The relative error was below 10% in spiked recovery studies, suggesting that fluorescent sensor 1 provides a simple, efficient, and promising method for determination of Hg(II) in complex matrices.