Dynamic Covalent Chemistry-based Sensing: Pyrenyl Derivatives of Phenylboronic Acid for Saccharide and Formaldehyde

Sci Rep. 2016 Aug 8:6:31187. doi: 10.1038/srep31187.

Abstract

We synthesized two specially designed pyrenyl (Py) derivatives of phenylboronic acid, PSNB1 and PSNB2, of which PSNB2 self-assemble to form dynamic aggregate in methanol-water mixture (1:99, v/v) via intermolecular H-bonding and pi-pi stacking. Interestingly, the dynamic aggregate shows smart response to presence of fructose (F) as evidenced by fluorescence color change from green to blue. More interestingly, the fluorescence emission of the resulted PSNB2-F changes from blue to green with the addition of formaldehyde (FA). The reason behind is formation of a PSNB2-F dimer via FA cross-linking. Based upon the reactions as found, sensitive and fast sensing of F and FA in water was realized, of which the experimental DLs could be significantly lower than 10 μM for both analytes, and the response times are less than 1 min. It is believed that not only the materials as created may have the potential to find real-life applications but also the strategy as developed can be adopted to develop other dynamic materials.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Boronic Acids / chemistry*
  • Formaldehyde / analysis*
  • Fructose / analysis*

Substances

  • Boronic Acids
  • Formaldehyde
  • Fructose
  • benzeneboronic acid