Tea polyphenols have become one of the promising healthcare molecules due to their anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, and anti-obesity capacities, making tea among the most popular and functional beverages worldwide. However, the sensitive and simple detection and discrimination of tea polyphenols is difficult to achieve since the analogues usually have similar chemical structures with polyhydroxy. Herein, a self-assembly system based on a cationic perylene diimide molecule tagging with phenylboric acid group (PDI-PBA) was constructed for detection and discrimination of catechin molecules (Epicatechin, Epicatechin gallate, Epigallocatechin, Epigallocatechin gallate), a subgroup of tea polyphenols. PDI-PBA could recognize tea polyphenols by dynamic borate ester bonds between PBA groups on PDI-PBA and cis-diols on tea polyphenols. Moreover, the fluorescence quench ratios of PDI-PBA were determined by the different aggregation degrees induced by every tea polyphenol with the unique chemical structure, especially cis-diol numbers. Thus, the selective discrimination could be easily realized by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The developed system relies mainly on dynamic borate ester bonds between the probe and substrates, the self-assembly of PDI-PBA, and polyhydroxy characteristic of tea polyphenols. This work provides a new strategy for sensitive detection and discrimination of tea polyphenols.

茶多酚具有抗癌，抗氧化和抗肥胖的功能，已成为有前途的保健分子之一，使茶成为全球最受欢迎和功能最全的饮料之一。然而，由于类似物通常具有与多羟基相似的化学结构，因此难以实现对茶多酚的灵敏且简单的检测和区分。在这里，建立了一个基于阳离子per二酰亚胺分子加苯基硼酸基团（PDI-PBA）的自组装系统，用于检测和鉴别儿茶素分子（表艾奇儿茶素，表儿茶素没食子酸酯，表没食子儿茶素，表没食子儿茶素没食子酸酯），茶多酚亚组。PDI-PBA可以通过PDI-PBA和顺式上的PBA基团之间的动态硼酸酯键识别茶多酚-茶多酚上的二醇。此外，PDI-PBA的荧光猝灭比取决于每种具有独特化学结构，尤其是顺式-二醇数的茶多酚诱导的不同聚集度。因此，可以通过线性判别分析（LDA）轻松实现选择性判别。开发的系统主要依靠探针和底物之间的动态硼酸酯键，PDI-PBA的自组装以及茶多酚的多羟基特性。这项工作为敏感检测和鉴别茶多酚提供了一种新的策略。