Highly Selective Anionic Counterion-based Fluorescent Sensor for Hg(2+) by Grafted Conjugated Polyelectrolytes

Abstract

Grafted conjugated polyelectrolytes were synthesized for the first time and characterized. The polymers demonstrated properties of a convenient and efficient protocol for creating Hg(2+) sensors. The unique character of the new material comes from an anionic counterion nature with no external cofactors, and imparts high selectivity and fast detection for mercury ion in a fluorescence probe. The concept may be potentially applied to create new sensors for monitoring other ions.