Fluorescent sensing of “quat” herbicides with a multifunctional pyrene-labeled monomer and molecular imprinting

- A strongly blue-fluorescent disulfonated pyrenedimethacrylamide has been prepared.
- It forms a 1:1 complex with diquat (DQ) and paraquat (PQ) herbicides in water.
- Molecular imprinting polymerization with a surrogate affords fluorosensing films.
- Selective charge-transfer interactions are enhanced by electrostatic attraction.
- The sensor detection limits are 162 and 281 nM for DQ for PQ, respectively.