A Method for the Highly Selective, Colorimetric and Ratiometric Detection of Hg2+ in a 100% Aqueous Solution

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) and its derivatives pose a serious threat to the environment and human health. Thus, the development of methods for the selective and sensitive determination of Hg 2+ is very important to understand its distribution, and to implement more detailed toxicological studies. Herein, we developed a new method for the detection of Hg 2+ based on the tricyanoethylene derivative and mercaptoethanol. This method could selectively detect Hg 2+ in a 100% aqueous solution by the naked-eye within the range of 1 -60 μM. Importantly, this method also could detect Hg 2+ quantitatively by ratiometic absorption spectroscopy in the range of 0.1 -6 μM with a detection limit of 55 nM. We anticipate that this proposed method will be used widely to monitor Hg 2+ in the environment.

A carbonothioate‐based highly selective fluorescent probe with a large Stokes shift for detection of Hg2+

“…Recently, we have designed and synthesized a series of fluorescent probes to detect Hg 2+ . One of these is a tricyanoethylene moiety that was used to design a colorimetric probe for Hg 2+ detection .…”

Fabrication of Water-soluble Fluorescent Polymeric Micelles for Selective Detection of Hg2+ in Blood Serum

“…[20][21][22][23] To date, many fluorescent sensors for Hg 2+ have been reported. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] However, many of these sensors are small molecules, which can only work in organic or mixed solvents, may restrict their applications in the environmental or biorelated fields due to their low water solubility and high toxicity. 33,34 To overcome these limitations, polymeric micellesbased sensors have recently attracted considerable interest owing to their excellent properties, including improved water solubility and longer in vivo circulation times, effective distribution of fluorescent dyes, etc.…”