Bifunctional Fluorescent Probes for the Detection of Mustard Gas and Phosgene

Abstract

Mustard gas [sulfur mustard (SM)] and phosgene are the most frequently used chemical warfare agents (CWAs), which pose a serious threat to human health and national security, and their rapid and accurate detection is essential to respond to terrorist attacks and industrial accidents. Herein, we developed a fluorescent probe with o-hydroxythioketone as two sensing sites, AQso, which can detect and distinguish mustard gas and phosgene. The dual-sensing-site probe AQso reacts with mustard gas to form a cyclic product with high sensitivity [limit of detection (LOD) = 70 nM] and is highly selective to SM over phosgene, SM analogues, active alkylhalides, acylhalides, and nerve agent mimics, in ethanol solutions. When encountering phosgene, AQso rapidly converts to cyclic carbonate, which is sensitive (LOD = 14 nM) and highly selective. Their sensing mechanisms of AQso to mustard gas and phosgene were well demonstrated by separation and characterization of the sensing products. Furthermore, a facile test strip with the probe was prepared to distinguish 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (CEES) and phosgene in the gas phase by different fluorescence colors and response rates. Not using the complicated instrument, the qualitative and quantitative detection of CEES or phosgene can be achieved only by measuring the red–green–blue (RGB) channel intensity of the test strip after being exposed to CEES or phosgene gas by the smartphone with an RGB color application.

Distance-Regulated Photoelectrochemical Sensor “Signal-On” and “Signal-Off” Transitions for the Multiplexed Detection of Viruses Exposed in the Aquatic Environment

“…As shown in Figure 1C, before the ion-exchange reaction, ZnSe exhibits a standard cubic crystal structure with five diffraction peaks at 27.2, 31.8, 45.2, 53.6, and 72.8°belonging to the (111), ( 200), (220), (311), and (422) planes, respectively. 40 However, no appearance new diffraction peaks was observed after the ion exchange reaction, which may be attributed to the fact that the crystal structures of CdSe and ZnSe are too similar, resulting in the diffraction peaks of CdSe being masked by ZnSe. 21 The PEC performances of CdSe@ZnSe were characterized by UV− vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, and photocurrent responses curves, respectively.…”

Fluorescent dyes based on rhodamine derivatives for bioimaging and therapeutics: recent progress, challenges, and prospects

“…288,289 It can cause serious damage to the lungs, leading to asphyxia, pulmonary edema, respiratory failure, and even death. 290,291 However, in addition to being a silent killer, phosgene is widely used in industry as an important precursor for medicines, pesticides, plastics, rubber, and dyes. 292,293 Therefore, it is significantly important to quantitatively detect COCl 2 in real time as it is a potential threat to public health.…”

ESIPT-PET based triphenylamine-anthraquinone probe for the detection of phosgene: DFT studies, real-time application in soil samples and test strips

“…On the other hand, fluorescence-based sensing systems offer a number of unique benefits, such as a low total cost, high level of sensitivity, simplicity of use, and dependable performance in the field. 20,21 Thus, these systems have a lot of enticing characteristics. Despite this, there are not many papers on the subject of phosgene identification.…”