Working with water insoluble organic molecules in aqueous media: fluorene derivative-containing polymers as sensory materials for the colorimetric sensing of cyanide in water

Abstract

This paper describes a strategy followed to achieve a sensing phenomenon in aqueous media using water-insoluble organic molecules. We have prepared a methacrylamide and a methacrylate with pendant cyanide chemosensors based on a fluorene-derivative motif, and we have fabricated highly hydrophilic membranes by means of copolymerising these hydrophobic monomers with others. Therefore, upon absorption of water in the membranes, solvated ions enter the membrane by a simple diffusion mechanism, reaching the hydrophobic chemosensor motifs and giving rise to a macroscopic sensing phenomenon. In this way, we have prepared solid materials (dense membranes or films) capable of selectively detecting cyanide, with an extremely low detection threshold, in aqueous solution by means of colour changes (naked-eye sensing) (13 ppb). Nevertheless, the key point of this research is the description of the possibilities of anchoring organic insoluble molecules (i.e., drugs, fungicides, bactericides, sensing probes, etc.) to solubilise them in water, or to prepare hydrogels, permitting the use of these molecules in aqueous media or in biological media for medical, biological or biochemical purposes.