Dipicolinic Acid-Tb3+/Eu3+ Lanthanide Fluorescence Sensor Array for Rapid and Visual Discrimination of Botanical Origin of Honey

In the present study, a lanthanide fluorescence sensor array was developed for the discrimination of honey’s botanical origin. Dipicolinic acid (DPA) was used as the antenna ligand for sensitizing the fluorescence of Tb3+ and Eu3+ to prepare the DPA-Tb3+/Eu3+ complex. This lanthanide fluorescence sensor showed a cross-reactive response to the major constituents of honey, which led to the result that different classes of honey solution exhibited distinct quenching effects on the fluorescence of the DPA-Tb3+/Eu3+ complex. Furthermore, a fluorescence sensor array composed of ten sensors was constructed by adjusting the pH and the component of the DPA-Tb3+/Eu3+ complex to show multivariate responses towards honey. The visual fluorescence image of the sensor array was recorded by using a smartphone under excitation with portable UV lamp. Results indicated that the pattern of the visual image was related with the botanical origin. After extracting the RGB value of each sensor in 96-well plate, the ratio of R/G was used for principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that three classes of honey (astragalus, logan, and litchi) were well distinguished. Moreover, the value of principal component 1 (PC1) showed good linearity with the composition of mixing honey and could be used for semi-quantitative analysis. The proposed lanthanide fluorescence sensor array presents a visual and portable method for the discrimination of a honey’s origin without the use of analytical instruments, and might provide a novel and simple strategy for the measurement of food origin.