Organosilane based magnetic silica nanoparticles for the detection of Al(iii) ions and construction of a molecular logic gate

Abstract

Here, organosilane based magnetic silica nanoparticles were developed by grafting synthesized organosilane onto the surface of magnetic silica nanoparticles and used as a turn-on fluorescent sensor for Al(III) ions. The resulting nanohybrids Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@silane were characterized using a variety of analytical methods, including FTIR, TGA, EDX, XRD, VSM and SEM. The fluorescence spectra changes revealed that Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@silane is highly selective for Al(III) via the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism. The sensor Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@silane was also capable of specifically sensing 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The detection limits were determined to be 2.23 × 10⁻⁸ M for Al(III) and 1.83 × 10⁻⁶ M for 4-NP. Furthermore, the changes in fluorescence exhibited by Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@silane upon the addition of Al(III) and 4-NP serve as the basis for an IMPLICATION-type logic gate. The pharmacokinetic profile of the synthesized compound 3 was examined using MOLINSPIRATION and ADMET software, and the findings were favourable.