Nerve Gas Simulant Sensing by a Uranyl–Salen Monolayer Covalently Anchored on Quartz Substrates

Abstract

A uranyl complex monolayer that easily allows the optical detection of a nerve gas simulant, namely, dimethyl methylphosphonate, is reported. Both UV/Vis spectroscopy and photoelectron data confirm that the functional hybrid material coordinates a Lewis base by means of the P=O group, which interacts with the uranium equatorial site available for complexation.

Supramolecular Detection of a Nerve Agent Simulant by Fluorescent Zn–Salen Oligomer Receptors

“…They exploit several non-covalent interactions for the recognition of the guest, such as inclusion within the hydrophobic macrocyclic cavity [14,15,16,17] or hydrogen bond-dependent gel formation [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. …”

“…Furthermore, recently we also demonstrated the high efficiency of metal-Salen complexes as receptors for NA simulants [25,39]. In particular, we reported on uranyl–Salen complexes able to efficiently recognize DMMP with high affinity constants due to a Lewis acid–base interaction between the metal center and the phosphate group [25]. In order to obtain a fluorescence response, we explored the use of Zn–Salen complexes for the DMMP detection, and achieved excellent results in terms of affinity and selectivity [39].…”

A New Mn–Salen Micellar Nanoreactor for Enantioselective Epoxidation of Alkenes in Water

“…Surfactant catalyst 1-Mn was synthesized according the multi-step pathway shown in Scheme 1. In the first step, 3-(tert-butyl)-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde was reacted with aqueous paraformaldehyde and HCl, leading to the 5-chloromethylated Compound 2 in high yield (95%) [26]. The reaction of 2 with a stoichiometric amount of tetradecanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide allowed for the selective introduction of the long aliphatic chain in 5-position, fundamental for the surfactant activity, (Compound 3, yield 32%).…”

A New Mn-Salen Micellar Nanoreactor for Enantioselective Epoxidation of Alkenes in Water

“…In the first step, 3-(tert-butyl)-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde was reacted with aqueous paraformaldehyde and HCl, leading to the 5-chloromethylated compound 2 in high yield (95%) [10]. Reaction of 2 with stoichiometric amount of tetradecanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide allowed to the selective introduction in 5-position of the long aliphatic chain, fundamental for the surfactant activity, (compound 3, yield 32%).…”