A Fluorescent and Colorimetric Chemosensor for Hg2+ Based on Rhodamine 6G With a Two-Step Reaction Mechanism

Cui-Bing Bai; Wei-Gang Wang; Jie Zhang; Chang Wang; Rui Qiao; Biao Wei; Lin Zhang; Shui-Sheng Chen; Song Yang

doi:10.3389/fchem.2020.00014

A Fluorescent and Colorimetric Chemosensor for Hg²⁺ Based on Rhodamine 6G With a Two-Step Reaction Mechanism

Front Chem. 2020 Feb 19:8:14. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2020.00014. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Cui-Bing Bai^{1

2}, Wei-Gang Wang¹, Jie Zhang¹, Chang Wang^{1

2}, Rui Qiao^{1

2}, Biao Wei^{1

2}, Lin Zhang^{1

2}, Shui-Sheng Chen^{1

2}, Song Yang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Fuyang Normal University, Fuyang, China.
² Anhui Province Key Laboratory for Degradation and Monitoring of Pollution of the Environment, Fuyang, China.

Abstract

A fluorescent and colorimetric chemosensor L based on rhodamine 6G was designed, synthesized, and characterized. Based on a two-step reaction, the chemosensor L effectively recognized Hg²⁺. The interaction between the chemosensor and Hg²⁺ was confirmed by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, fluorescence spectroscopy, electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and frontier molecular orbital calculations. The chemosensor L was also incorporated into test strips and silica gel plates, which demonstrated good selectivity and high sensitivity for Hg²⁺.

Keywords: Hg2+; chemosensor; rhodamine 6G; silica gel plates; test strips.