γ-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), a colourless, odourless and tasteless chemical, has become one of the most dangerous illicit drugs of abuse today. At low doses, this drug is a central nervous system depressant that reduces anxiety and produces euphoria and relaxation, sedating the recipient. There is an urgent need for simple, easy-to-use sensors for GHB in solution. Here, we present a colorimetric sensor array based on supramolecular host-guest complexes of fluorescent dyes with organic capsules (cucurbiturils) for the detection of GHB.
Keywords: cucurbiturils; drug detection; host-guest systems; sensors; supramolecular chemistry.
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