Colorimetric and fluorescent chemosensor for citrate based on a rhodamine and Pb2+ complex in aqueous solution

• A novel rhodamine compound was synthesized and used to recognize citrate.
• The chemosensor can be applied to detect citrate by color and fluorescent changes.
• The chemosensor has been used for citrate in real samples successfully.

In this paper we unveil a novel rhodamine compound based fluorescent chemosensor (1-Pb2+) for colormetric and fluorescent detection of citrate in aqueous solution. This is the first fluorescent chemosensor for citrate based on rhodamine compound. The comparison of this method with some other fluorescence methods for citrate indicates that the method can detect citrate in aqueous solution by both color changes and fluorescent changes with long emission wavelength. In the new developed sensing system, 1-Pb2+ is fluorescent due to Pb2+-induced fluorescence enhancement of 1. However, the addition of citrate may release 1 into the solution with quenching of fluorescence. The chemosensor can be applied to the quantification of citrate with a linear range covering from 1.0 × 10−7 to 5.0 × 10−5 M and a detection limit of 2.5 × 10−8 M. The experiment results show that the response behavior of 1-Pb2+ towards citrate is pH independent in medium condition (pH 6.0–8.0). Most importantly, the fluorescence changes of the chemosensor are remarkably specific for citrate in the presence of other anions (even those that exist in high concentration), which meet the selective requirements for practical application. Moreover, the response of the chemosensor toward citrate is fast (response time less than 1 min). In addition, the chemosensor has been used for determination of citrate in urine samples with satisfactory results.

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