Toxic heavy metal detection in water sources is crucial due to the detrimental social and environmental threats these metals pose. Traditional methods of metal detection in water rely on expensive and sophisticated technologies, limiting their availability for on-site detection. Here, we report a six-member fluorescent sensor array for 100% successful classification of 9 metal ions in water. The array consists of the commercially available fluorescent dye, Calcein Blue, and 5 analogues that were all synthesised in three steps or less. To further increase simplicity, we report the reduction of the number of sensing elements from 6 to 3 using multivariate statistics to arrive at an array still capable of 100% correct classification. The utility of the three-member fluorescent sensing array was confirmed in environmental pond water samples. The array's flexibility was also demonstrated through its successful classification of micromolar concentrations of Pb2+ for quantitative analysis of heavy metals in water samples.

中文翻译：

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荧光三传感器阵列，用于环境水源中的重金属。

由于这些金属构成有害的社会和环境威胁，因此对水中的有毒重金属进行检测至关重要。水中金属的传统检测方法依赖于昂贵且复杂的技术，从而限制了其在现场检测中的可用性。在这里，我们报告一个六元荧光传感器阵列，用于100％成功分类水中的9种金属离子。该阵列由可商购的荧光染料，钙黄绿素蓝和5种类似物组成，它们均以3步或更少的步骤合成。为了进一步提高简便性，我们报告了使用多元统计数据将传感元件的数量从6个减少到3个，从而得出仍能够100％正确分类的阵列。三元荧光传感阵列的实用性已在环境池塘水样中得到证实。