Abstract
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•RH-Cu could rapidly (about 3 min) and sensitively detect Cu2+.•A portable and accurate Cu2+ detection method was developed using a smartphone with Pick RGB software.•RH-Cu could successfully apply to the detection of Cu2+ in food and organisms.•RH-Cu could detect the fluctuation of Cu2+ content during the release of drugs.
In the subject of food safety, identifying and measuring the active components in food is a hot topic. Food safety and biological health are all strongly correlated with the amount of copper ions (Cu2+) presented in the environment. Nevertheless, the existing Cu2+ detection technology has disadvantages such as difficult operation and inconvenient on-site analysis. Therefore, a new Cu2+ fluorescent probe RH-Cu with a fast response and low limit of detection was built in this study. It can be used to measure the quantity of Cu2+ in real food and water samples. Additionally, a relationship was established between the color RGB values and the concentration of Cu2+. A new mobile phone software (Pick RGB) was developed to realize the portable detection of Cu2+. This work offers a portable instrument for the detection of Cu2+ and provides an idea for developing portable detection techniques for other significant foods’ active constituents.