Quantitative detection of H2O2 with a composite fluorescent probe of 8-quinoline boronic acid-Al(III)

• A reaction-based composite fluorescent probe of 8-quinoline boronic acid-Al(III) for the determination of hydrogen peroxide. • The detection mechanism is based on oxidation and coordination reaction. • The probe displays good selectivity for H 2 O 2 among 9 other oxidants. • The detection of H 2 O 2 in real-world samples has been effectively demonstrated. We herein reported a reaction-based composite fluorescent probe of 8-quinoline boronic acid-Al(III) for the determination of hydrogen peroxide. The detection mechanism relies on the oxidative capability of H 2 O 2 , which can hydrolyze 8-quinoline boronic acid into 8-hydroxyquinoline, and thus coordinated with Al(III) to form fluorescent tris(8-hydroxyquinolino) Al(III), inducing more than 25-fold fluorescence enhancement. The switch-on composite fluorescent probe gives a novel method for quantitatively detecting H 2 O 2 in the linear range of 5–115 μM, with a limit of detection down to 75 nM. Furthermore, it can be successfully applied for exogenous H 2 O 2 in real water samples from Ganzhou.