The invention discloses a
chitin-based fluorescent film for Zr < 4 + > detection and a preparation method thereof. The material takes a
chitin film as a substrate and is chemically modified in situ by a one-pot method. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, dissolving
chitin in an alkali /
urea system, preparing a chitin film through a
tape casting method, and washing the film with deionized water until the pH value is neutral; then, a multi-component
Mannich reaction is adopted, the chitin thin film obtained after
hot pressing reacts with
quercetin molecules and
aldehyde compounds, and the modified covalent grafted chitin-based fluorescent thin film is obtained. Through introduction of
quercetin molecules, the chitin film is endowed with
fluorescence performance, and meanwhile, carbonyl and polyhydroxy structures of
quercetin have the capability of easily forming strong complexes with
metal ions, so that the modified chitin-based fluorescent film has the characteristic of quantitatively detecting the
metal ions. The preparation method disclosed by the invention accords with
green chemistry, is simple to operate and stable in performance, and can be used for rapidly and highly selectively detecting
zirconium (IV) ions.