• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.261-269
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• 2015

Two new D-${\pi}$-A dyes were synthesized by the condensation reaction between active methyl and aromatic aldehyde and its biothiol sensing properties in DMSO/water were investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy. Upon addition of $Hg^{2+}$, the solution of D-${\pi}$-A dyes showed color change and the absorption band shows a formation of a dye-$Hg^{2+}$ coordination complex. These dyes exhibited high selectivity for $Hg^{2+}$ as compared with other cations. The dye-$Hg^{2+}$ could be recovered by adding glutathion(GSH). The absorption intensity of dye-$Hg^{2+}$ increased only by the addition of glutathione(GSH). The competition experiments revealed that no obvious interference was observed by performing the titration with the mixture of glutathione(GSH) and other amino acids. The results indicated that these D-${\pi}$-A dyes were highly selective for glutathione(GSH) detection.

• Nano
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.1850116.1-1850116.14
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• 2018

In this study, we report the mercury ions ($Hg^{2+}$) mediated phosphorus-containing carbon dots (PCDs) as a selective "off-on" fluorescence probe for glutathione (GSH), cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcys). PCDs obtained by hydrothermal reaction are sensitive to $Hg^{2+}$ ions and its fluorescence can be significantly quenched owing to the electron transfer from the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of PCDs to $Hg^{2+}$. Interestingly, the weak fluorescence of $Hg^{2+}$-mediated PCDs could be gradually recovered with the addition of GSH, Cys and Hcys. This can be attributed to the formation of $Hg^{2+}-S$ complex due to the super affinity of $Hg^{2+}$-sulfydryl bond. The formation of $Hg^{2+}-S$ complex extremely reduces the oxidation ability of $Hg^{2+}$ that inhibits the electron transfer from LUMO of PCDs to $Hg^{2+}$ and re-opens the native electron transition from LUMO to the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of PCDs. Thus, the green fluorescence of PCDs is switched on. Furthermore, the present $Hg^{2+}$-mediated PCDs assay exhibits a high selectivity for GSH, Cys and Hcy and has been successfully used to detect the total biothiols content in human urine samples.