Supramolecular self-assembled polymeric nanospheres based on hydrazino naphthalimide functionalised pillar[5]arene for long chain aldehyde detection.

A novel fluorescent sensor HNP5A is constructed consisting of bis-hydrazine naphthalimide decorated pillar[5]arene. Interestingly, this sensor possessed the potential for sensitive and selective detection of long-chain aldehydes, particularly nonanal (C9), and subsequently formed supramolecular pseudorotaxane polymeric nanoparticles inducing a strong fluorescence enhancement. In addition, this as-produced HNP5A⊂C9 exhibited an unexpected reduction of Ag + to produce AgNPs in an aqueous system and the resulting AgNPs-HNP5A⊂C9 demonstrated a significant fluorescence enhancement under metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) behaviour.