An astonishing simple cerium-based chemosensor for fluorescent selective phosphate detection in aquaeous medium

Phosphate ions are socially important chemicals. They are involved in crucial processes such as for example in medicine or agriculture. However, their sensing with a chemosensor is ardous due to their chemical properties. In this context, a remarkable chemosensor would reveal an outstanding affinity, a high selectivity and a low detection limit in favor of an analyte. This has long been addressed in the past by chemists in synthesizing com- plex chemical architectures as receptors but with questionable successes. Astonishingly, here, for phosphate detection, we address this problem profiting by a simple fluorescent indicator displacement assay (FID) with only commercially available chemicals. We used cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN) combined with a fluorophore to probe phosphate ions in aqueous mediums. The inorganic complex detects phosphate ions in low millimolar concentrations either spectrophotometrically or with the naked-eye with high selectivity and affinity over other anions. To our knowledge, this is the first description of a simple sensitive, selective and high affinity cerium-based chemosensor for the fluorescent selective naked-eye detection of phosphate in aqueous medium. It proved useful for the detection of phosphate in Coca-Cola©.