Fluorescence | Environmental applications

Fluorescence detection is rapidly making its way into new advancements across several fields; it has turned into a widely accepted technique for environmental analysis. Fortunately, this method offers the sensitivity, which is highly demanded for environmental analysis; however, lack of selectivity is one of the major drawbacks on the fluorescence detection. Separation techniques include liquid chromatography (LC) or capillary electrophoresis (CE), the multiparametric information of fluorescence such as spectral change, intensity, lifetime, polarization etc., low-temperature fluorimetry, and immunoanalytical techniques constitute an effective approach to overcome the selectivity problem. The identification of polycyclic aromatic compounds, major constituents of environmental pollution but with high fluorescence quantum yield and some challenging pollutants like isocyanates, pesticides devoid of a significant native fluorescence were successfully addressed by fluorescence methods. As such, in this perspective, this article discusses major strategies in the application of fluorescence techniques in environmental analysis.