Oxidative cyclization of thiosemicarbazide: a chemodosimetric approach for the highly selective fluorescence detection of cerium(IV)

A simple thiosemicarbazide-based chemodosimeter was employed to detect Ce4+ ion through turn-on fluorescence. The sensing mechanism was based on oxidative cyclization. The chemodosimeter exhibited exceptional selectivity for Ce4+, which allowed the detection of as low as 11 nM Ce4+ ion in an aqueous ethanol medium.