Agius N, Ashton CJ, Willcock H, Magri DC.
Cinchona alkaloid copolymers as fluorimetric INHIBIT and colorimetric AND logic gates for detection of iodide.
RSC Adv 2025;
15:11121-11127. [PMID:
40201211 PMCID:
PMC11977102 DOI:
10.1039/d5ra01281c]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2025] [Accepted: 03/28/2025] [Indexed: 04/10/2025] Open
Abstract
Four cinchona alkaloid-acrylamide water soluble copolymers with a mean hydrodynamic diameter of 3 nm were synthesised by free radical polymerization. The copolymers were characterised by 1H NMR, FTIR, GPC, DLS, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. A blue emission is observed with H+ switching of 185 and 175-fold for the quinidine and quinine copolymers, and 21 and 11-fold for the cinchonine and cinchonidine copolymers, while the presence of Cl-, Br- or I- causes fluorescence quenching. In emission mode, the copolymers function as fluorescent H+, X--driven INHIBIT logic gates (where X = Cl-, Br- or I-). In absorbance mode, the copolymers function as colorimetric H+, I--driven AND logic gates in 1 : 1 (v/v) THF/water with a 76-fold enhancement. The solution colour changes from colourless to yellow with formation of new absorbance bands at 288 nm and 353 nm due to a π-anion non-covalent charge transfer interaction. The copolymers may be useful as selective iodide sensors for medical and analytical diagnostics.
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