Facilely discrimination of 10 psychoactive substances by poly(ionic liquid) photonic sphere platform

The abuse of psychoactive substances has become a serious risk to the public health and social safety. Developing strategies capable of facile discriminating numerous psychoactive substances is essential to mitigate this risk. Herein, a poly(ionic liquid) (PIL)-based photonic sphere was developed. By the synergistical integration of the multiple non-covalent molecular interaction involved in the PIL and the self-reporting optical signal of the photonic structure, the obtained PIL photonic sphere exhibit excellent power toward the discrimination of psychoactive substances. Specifically, through judiciously selecting the counterion of PIL, as much as 10 psychoactive substances was facilely and efficiently discriminated by the PIL photonic sphere. Our results indicate that the PIL photonic sphere is a very powerful tool for discriminating psychoactive substances, and holds promising potential for applications involving complex multi-analyte systems. • A poly(ionic liquid) (PIL)-based photonic sphere was developed, which exhibit excellent power toward the discrimination of psychoactive substances. • The synergistic integration of multiple intermolecular interactions was involved in PIL and the self-reporting optical signal of photonic structure. • The PIL photonic sphere is able to successfully discriminate as much as 10 psychoactive substances in a very facilely and efficient fashion.