Design and synthesis of a terbium(III) complex-based luminescence probe for time-gated luminescence detection of mercury(II) ions.

Time-gated luminescence detection technique using lanthanide complexes as luminescent probes is a useful and highly sensitive method. However, the effective application of this technique is limited by the lack of the target-responsive luminescent lanthanide complexes that can specifically recognize various analytes in aqueous solutions. In this work, a dual-functional ligand that can form a stable complex with Tb(3+) and specifically recognize Hg(2+) ions in aqueous solutions, N,N,N(1),N(1)-{[2,6-bis(3'-aminomethyl-1'-pyrazolyl)-4-[N,N-bis(3″,6″-dithiaoctyl)-aminomethyl]- pyridine]} tetrakis(acetic acid) (BBAPTA), has been designed and synthesized. The luminescence of its Tb(3+) complex is weak, but can be effectively enhanced upon reaction with Hg(2+) ions in aqueous solutions. The luminescence response investigations of BBAPTA-Tb(3+) to various metal ions indicate that the complex has a good luminescence sensing selectivity for Hg(2+) ions, but not for other metal ions. Thus a highly sensitive time-gated luminescence detection method for Hg(2+) ions was developed by using BBAPTA-Tb(3+) as a luminescent probe. The dose-dependent luminescence enhancement of the probe shows a good linearity with a detection limit of 17 nM for Hg(2+) ions. These results demonstrated the efficacy and advantages of the new Tb(3+) complex-based luminescence probe for the sensitive and selective detection of Hg(2+) ions.