New fluorescent probes for mercury(II) with simple structure

Based on the protection reaction between ethanethiol and aldehyde, a novel fluorescent probe (2) for Hg(2+) ions, with the simplest structure reported so far, was designed, which displayed high sensitivity and selectivity towards Hg(2+) and Ag(+) over other metal ions with detectable fluorescent signals, due to distinct deprotection reaction of dithioacetal. Compound 2 was further utilized to construct the chemical reaction-based conjugated polymer probes (P2 and P4) for Hg(2+) ions. More importantly, the effect of the molecular weight of conjugated polymers on the sensitivity of the probes towards Hg(2+) ions was carefully studied. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.