ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Highly sensitive and selective fluorescence chemosensors containing phenanthroline moieties for detection of Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions

Cong Quan, Jiayu Liu, Wei Sun, and Xinjian Cheng

Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, China

E-mail: chxj606@163.com

Abstract: It is extremely necessary to detect heavy metals sensitively and selectively, especially the ions that will cause great harm to humans and the environment. This work deals with two fluorescent chemosensors and their outstanding role when detecting Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions. First, a small molecular chemosensor (TPB) has been designed and synthesized via Suzuki reaction using one part of benzene-1,3,5-triyltriboronic acid and three parts of 2-bromo-1, 10-phenanthroline as starting materials. And then, its corresponding macromolecular fluorescent chemosensor (PTPB) was synthesized. The infrared spectra, mass spectrometry (MS), and ¹H-NMR were used to study the structures of TPB and PTPB. From what has been studied, the TPB and PTPB were stable in a relative wide pH range. As soon as the Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions added, fluorescence of the two sensors TPB and PTPB was changed obviously. In addition, PTPB was found have better performance to both Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ than TPB through the ‘‘molecular wire’’ mechanism. Job’s plots were also be tested, showing that the combination ratio of TPB and PTPB to Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ were both 3:1 (ion/sensor). In addition, the minimum detection limits of the macromolecular chemosensor PTPB for Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ reached 0.424 μM and 1.27 μM, respectively.

Keywords: Fluorescence chemosensors ; Heavy metal ions ; Cd²⁺ and Zn²⁺ detection 

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-019-00893-9

Chemical Papers 74 (2) 485–497 (2020)