The use of outer filter effects for Cu(2+) quantitation: a unique example for monitoring nonfluorescent molecule with fluorescence

This article concerns a new and precise strategy for the determination of Cu(2+) based on a color reaction and outer filter effects (OFEs). Cu(2+) can react with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate trihydrate (DDTC) to form a DDTC-Cu(2+) complex with a significant absorption at 447 nm. Being positively correlated with Cu(2+), the absorption could be treated as the basis for the determination of Cu(2+). When cuvettes containing the complex were fixed in the light path of a fluorescence spectrophotometer, the excitation/emitted light were absorbed by the OFEs, similar to absorption mechanisms of inner filter effects. Under suitable conditions, OFEs from the complex could quantitatively reduce the fluorescence intensities of quinine sulfate and acridine yellow by absorbing the excitation or emission light. Compared with traditional absorption spectroscopy (with a detection limit at 0.9 μmol/L), indirect OEF techniques showed increased sensitivities by about 1 order of magnitude. The strategy could be extended to many different systems where components absorb the excitation wavelength and/or emission wavelength of fluorescers.