Contamination of Hg²⁺ in an aqueous environment is dangerous for all living species including human. In this work, a new rhodamine B derivative fluorescent sensor (sensor RBS) for Hg²⁺ detection was successfully synthesized. In addition, the synthesized yellow silver nanoparticles (Y-AgNPs) were incorporated into sensor RBS to obtain sensor RBS + Y-AgNPs. The sensitivity studies for Hg²⁺ detection of the sensors showed that the Hg²⁺ detection limit of sensor RBS and sensor RBS + Y-AgNPs were 12.9 ppb and 0.7 ppb, respectively. The result indicated that incorporation of Y-AgNPs into sensor RBS led to significantly lower Hg²⁺ detection limit of sensor RBS + Y-AgNPs, which could be attributed to plasmonic enhancement of Y-AgNPs. Furthermore, the selectivity studies of the sensors showed that sensor RBS and sensor RBS + Y-AgNPs were highly selective toward Hg²⁺ against interference ions. We also showed that sensor RBS + Y-AgNPs could be used to detect Hg²⁺ in real samples. Importantly, we have demonstrated that utilization of plasmonic enhancement could improve the sensitivity of the Hg²⁺ fluorescent sensor, which could pave the way for development of portable fluorescent sensor for the on-site Hg²⁺ detection.

在水性环境中污染Hg ²⁺对包括人类在内的所有生物都是危险的。在这项工作中，成功地合成了用于检测Hg ²⁺的新型若丹明B衍生物荧光传感器（传感器RBS）。另外，将合成的黄银纳米颗粒（Y-AgNPs）掺入传感器RBS中以获得传感器RBS + Y-AgNPs。传感器对Hg ²⁺检测的敏感性研究表明，传感器RBS和传感器RBS + Y-AgNPs的Hg ²⁺检测极限    分别为12.9 ppb和0.7 ppb。结果表明，将Y-AgNPs掺入传感器RBS中可显着降低传感器RBS + Y-AgNPs的Hg ²⁺检测限，这可能归因于Y-AgNPs的等离子体增强。此外，对传感器的选择性研究表明，传感器RBS和传感器RBS  +  Y-AgNPs对Hg ²⁺具有很高的抗干扰离子选择性。我们还表明，传感器RBS  +  Y-AgNPs可用于检测Hg ²⁺在真实样本中。重要的是，我们已经证明利用等离子体增强可以提高Hg ²⁺荧光传感器的灵敏度，这可以为开发用于现场Hg ²⁺检测的便携式荧光传感器铺平道路。