A novel water soluble pillar[5]arene and phenazine derivative self-assembled pseudorotaxane sensor for the selective detection of Hg2+ and Ag+ with high selectivity and sensitivity

Abstract

We design and synthesize a novel bifunctional supramolecular pseudorotaxane chemosensor (G-WAP), which uses water soluble cationic pillar[5]arene (WAP) as the host and a phenazine imidazole (G) as guest. The real-time fluorescence response did show efficient quenching of the supramolecular pseudorotaxane chemosensor (G-WAP) upon the addition of Ag⁺ and an obvious fluorescence color change of the supramolecular pseudorotaxane chemosensor (G-WAP) is observed upon the addition of Hg²⁺. Excellent sensitivity and selectivity toward the Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ detection were verified in the presence of other competitive cations, and the detection limits of G-WAP for Ag⁺ is 1.2 × 10⁻⁸ M, for Hg²⁺ is 5.0 × 10⁻⁷ M. Consequently, this supramolecular pseudorotaxane chemosensor proved to be an efficient tool in the identification of mercury and silver ions in water.