The concentration of nitrite (NO₂⁻) ions above allowable limits in water resources and food stuffs is considered hazardous and has been proven to be of great threat to the environment and public health. In this work, an acenaphtho [1,2-d] imidazole derivative (1) as a ratiometric colorimetric probe is developed. UV–Vis experiments demonstrate that the probe 1 shows excellent selectivity toward NO₂⁻ in the presence of other potential interfering species, a rapid response (20 s) and a low detection limit (100 nM) by a distinct visual color change with a bathochromic shift of 120 nm from colorless to intense yellow. Besides, this probe is further used for the quantification of nitrite ions in environmental water resources such as tap water, underground water, and surface water samples. The high recoveries (96–99% with relative standard deviations (RSD) of <2.0%) make the probe 1 a promising candidate for practical applications in daily life in the detection of nitrite ions.

亚硝酸盐的浓度（NO ₂ ^- ）离子之上的水资源和食品允许的限度被认为是危险的，并已被证明是对环境和公众健康造成巨大威胁。在这项工作中，开发了一种比色比色探针an [1,2- d ]咪唑衍生物（1）。紫外-可见实验表明，该探头1示出了朝向NO优异的选择性₂ ^-在存在其他潜在干扰物种的情况下，通过明显的视觉颜色变化（从无色到深黄色的120 nm的红移），可提供快速响应（20 s）和低检测限（100 nM）。此外，该探针还用于定量自来水，地下水和地表水样品等环境水资源中的亚硝酸根离子。高回收率（96–99％，相对标准偏差（RSD）<2.0％）使探头1在亚硝酸根离子检测中成为日常生活中实际应用的有希望的候选者。