Synthesis and evaluation of arylfuryl-bis(indolyl)methanes as selective chromogenic and fluorogenic ratiometric receptors for mercury ion in aqueous solution

• Autor(a) principal: Batista, Rosa Maria Ferreira
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Costa, Susana P. G., Silva, Regina M. P., Lima, Nuno E. M., Raposo, M. Manuela M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/31936
• topic: Bis(indolyl)methanes; Arylfuran; Ratiometric fluorogenic chemosensors; Hg2+; Direct visual detection; Aqueous solution; Ciências Naturais::Ciências Químicas; Science & Technology

A series of arylfuryl-bis(indolyl)methane derivatives were prepared in good yields by electrophilic substitution of indole with furyl aldehydes through a simple and mild hydrogensulfate-catalysed reaction and studied as chemosensors for transition metal cations by performing spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric titrations. Selective recognition of Hg2+ was achieved in organic aqueous mixture (CH3CN/H2O, 7:3) for the various receptors, with an easily detectable colour change from colourless to purple and also through a fluorescence quenching, making these compounds suitable for dual chromoand fluorogenic ratiometric sensing of Hg2+. The binding stoichiometry between the receptors and Hg2+ was found to be 1:1. The binding process was also followed by 1H NMR titrations which corroborated the previous findings.