A simple AIE-based chemosensor for highly sensitive and selective detection of Hg2+ and CN-

摘要

A novel red-emitting chemosensor BCTT has been developed for the detection of Hg2+ and CN- in DMF-water solution with high sensitivity and selectivity. It exhibited a 'turn-on' fluorescence upon binding with Hg2+ based on its AIE properties and a turn-off response to CN- due to the nucleophilic addition of CN- to the dicyanovinyl group with visible color changing from yellow to colorless. Remarkably, the detection limits for Hg2+ and CN- were 6.6 nM and 0.11 mu M, respectively, which are much lower than the regulated limits in drinking water, promoting BCTT as a promising candidate in practical applications. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.