A highly selective heterogeneous fluorescent sensor for palladium ionsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Synthetic details, TEM images and spectroscopic data. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ay00696a

A selective heterogeneous fluorescent sensor ( FSM ) for palladium was synthesized by grafting a small molecular fluorescent sensor onto mesoporous silica microspheres. FSM can selectively detect Pd 2+ with a significant fluorescent quenching response, and the limit of detection was calculated to be 0.18 ppm. On the other hand, with silica microspheres as the matrix material, FSM is found to be able to remove trace palladium from water. By grafting fluorescent probes onto mesoporous silica micro-spheres, we prepared a highly selective heterogeneous fluorescent sensor FSM for the detection and removal of palladium ions in water.