Cao Hong-Tao, Ding Lei, Shan Guo-Gang, Sun Hai-Zhu, Wu Yong, Su Zhong-Min
Institute of Functional Material Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024 Jilin, People's Republic of China.
Dalton Trans. 2015 Dec 14;44(46):19997-20003. doi: 10.1039/c5dt03129j.
A sulfur-free iridium(III) complex (pbi)2Ir(mtpy) (1) was successfully prepared and adopted as a Hg(II)-chemosensor with high selectivity and sensitivity. Multi-signaling responses towards Hg(II) ions were observed by UV-vis absorption, phosphorescence and electrochemistry measurements. With addition of Hg(II) ions, complex 1 presented quenched emission in its phosphorescence spectrum and the detection limit was as low as 2.5 × 10(-7) M. Additionally, its redox peak currents showed a broad linear relationship with the concentration of Hg(II) ions ranging from 0 to 500 μM, which was beneficial for the quantitative detection. Based on the (1)H NMR and ESI-MS analyses, the probing mechanism was tentatively supposed to be the Hg(2+)-induced changes in the local environment of complex 1. Such a response process was useful for achieving simple and effective detection of Hg(II) ions as well as developing more chemosensors.
