A reusable thioether-rich crown-based fluorescent sensor for the detection and removal of mercuric ions

Yao Tang; Yu Liu; Yiqiao Qin; Yufang Xu; Xuhong Qian; Weiping Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2016.06.021

A reusable thioether-rich crown-based fluorescent sensor for the detection and removal of mercuric ions

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2016 Oct 1:479:7-14. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.06.021. Epub 2016 Jun 8.

Authors

Yao Tang¹, Yu Liu¹, Yiqiao Qin¹, Yufang Xu¹, Xuhong Qian¹, Weiping Zhu²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. Electronic address: wpzhu@ecust.edu.cn.

PMID: 27343764
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.06.021

Abstract

Based on the thioether-rich crown receptor, we describe a naphthalimide based bifunctional fluorescent sensor (FS-G) for simultaneous detection and separation of trace Hg(2+) in water. FS-G exhibited excellent selectivity toward Hg(2+) in aqueous environment and showed 5-fold increase in fluorescence emission intensity upon the addition of Hg(2+). A good linearity was observed between the fluorescence enhancement and the dose of Hg(2+) with a lower detection limit of 33.4ppb. Additionally, adsorption capacity of FS-G is 7.4mgg(-1). FS-G can be easily regenerated when treated with dimercaptosuccinic acid. These results indicate that FS-G has potential applications for detection and removal of trace Hg(2+) in water.

Keywords: Detection; Fluorescent sensor; Mercuric ions; Removal; Reusable.