A novel reusable glutathione-modified magnetic fluorescent nanosensor for highly sensitive determination and removal of Cu2+

Recently, growing attention has been paid to the sensitive determination and removal of Cu2+ because short-term exposure to high levels of Cu2+ can cause gastrointestinal disturbance and long-term exposure can cause damage to the liver and kidneys. In this paper, we herein reported a novel reusable glutathione-modified magnetic fluorescent Fe3O4@ZnS nanosensor (MFNS) for simultaneous detection and removal of Cu2+ from contaminated water samples. The results showed that MFNS could quantificationally detect Cu2+ with high sensitivity and selectivity under a broad pH range (pH 4.6–9). The maximum sorption capacity of MFNS was calculated to be about 91 mg g−1, which is superior to the reported reports. The removal of Cu2+ from contaminated water samples was achieved by the aggregation-induced sedimentation (AIS) strategy. Moreover, the suspended magnetic nanosensor could be removed by external magnetic field, and the potential secondary pollution was avoided.