Switching the recognition ability of a photoswitchable receptor towards phosphorylated anions

An azothiazole probe as a multianalyte colorimetric chemosensor for urea and biologically significant amines

We report an azothiazole-based probe as a chemosensor for urea with a LOD of 45 μM. The underlying sensing principle is an instantaneous color change associated with the complex forming between the probe and ammonia, a hydrolysis product of urea catalyzed by the enzyme urease. In addition, the probe has a broad scope in sensing biologically significant amines such as arginine and lysine across a wide range of pH (4 to 8). Through extensive spectroscopic and computational studies in conjunction with control experiments, the importance of H-bonding in the sensing mechanism has been unraveled, revealing the stoichiometry, binding constant and LOD of these analytes with the probe. Indeed, the two individual amino acids can be distinguished by the spectral changes associated with UV-vis spectroscopy or by contrasting color diffusion under agarose gel conditions. Moreover, the probe shows a broad scope in detecting a range of aliphatic primary and secondary amines, including cyclic amines. The utility of the probe has also been demonstrated by using it for sensing urea in urine samples. These attributes make this probe a cost-effective, reusable and versatile chemosensor with ease of handling for sensing multianalytes by varying the conditions and detection modes.

A comprehensive review of the imidazole, benzimidazole and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-based sensors for the detection of fluoride ion

Imidazole-based chemicals exhibit significant potential in various scientific fields, mainly in the chemical and pharmaceutical sciences. The imidazole ring is a five-membered aromatic heterocycle found in several natural and synthetic substances. Its distinctive structural property, which includes a desirable electron-rich characteristic, allows imidazole derivatives to readily bond with a wide range of anions, cations, and neutral organic molecules. This review aims to assemble the sensing qualities of the most recently reported imidazole derivatives and analyse their potential as sensors. Among all other ions, fluoride sensing is primarily targeted for this context, because fluoride ions have garnered a lot of attention in recent decades due to their distinctive physiochemical properties and essential roles in many biological, chemical, pharmaceutical, and environmental processes. Fluoride ion detection is a broad field, and several fluorescent probes are continuously introduced to bind fluoride ions in aqueous and organic media. A few reviews have been published, emphasizing macrocycle cages, nanomaterial probes, bio-material sensors, and large organic molecule chemosensors for F- detection. A special review focusing solely on fluoride sensing by the imidazole-based moiety has not yet been addressed. Imidazole compounds have surged in prominence over the last few years, making them particularly desirable for developing efficient, sensitive, and selective fluoride detection methods. The present review concisely represents the contribution of a wide variety of imidazole fluorophores for fluoride ion detection.

Recent Advancements in Ion-Pair Receptors

Over the past two decades, non-covalent chemistry has introduced various promising artificial receptors and revolutionized the host-guest chemistry. These versatile receptors have particularly been entertained in sensing and recognizing of diverse neutral molecules and/or ionic entities (e. g. anions, cations and ion-pair) of particular interest. Notably, supramolecular chemistry had given birth to a plethora of important molecules, explored in the chemical, biological, environmental, and pharmacological world to resolve the critical issues related to the human health while keeping environmental concerns in mind. Amongst the various types of supramolecular monotopic receptors (anions, cations, and neutral molecules), heteroditopic receptors (ion-pair receptors) consisting of distinct binding sites in one system for both cation and anion, have gained much interest from the scientific community in recent past because of their unique binding abilities. Interestingly, these promising artificial receptors have shown potential applications in sensing, recognition, transport and extraction processes besides their uses in salt/waste purification. Bearing the importance of these systems in mind, we intended to report the recent developments in ion-pair chemistry. Herein, we divided the whole document into three main sections; first one describes the introduction and history of the ion-pairs receptors. The second portion highlights the synthesis and applications of ion-pair receptors in sensing, recognition, molecular machines, photoswitching behaviour, extraction and transport properties, whereas the last part of this manuscript provides concluding remarks as well as future prospects of ion-pair receptors. We hope that this manuscript will be helpful to stimulating researchers around the globe to find out the hidden opportunities in this and related areas.

A Direct Method for the Efficient Synthesis of Hydroxyalkyl-Containing Azoxybenzenes

Reaction of nitrobenzyl alcohol with glucose (200 mol%) in the presence of NaOH in water-ethanol medium gave 1,2-bis(4-(hydroxymethyl)phenyl)diazene oxide, 1,2-bis(2-(hydroxymethyl)phenyl)diazene oxide and 1,2-bis(4-(1-hydroxyethyl)phenyl)diazene oxide in 76%, 76% and 72% yields, respectively.

A pH-Based Single-Sensor Array for Discriminating Metal Ions in Water

Human activities, such as mining and manufacturing, expose society and the natural environment to harmful levels of metal ions. Recently, optical sensor arrays for metal ion detection have become popular owing to their favourable features, such as facile sample preparation and the requirement of less expensive instrumentation compared to traditional, spectrometry‐based analysis techniques. Sensor arrays usually consist of numerous optical probes that are used in combination to generate unique analyte responses. In contrast, here we present an array that comprises a single fluorescent sensor, Coum4‐DPA, that produces unique responses to metal ions in different pH environments. With this simple sensing platform, we were able to classify 10 metal ions in different water sources and quantify Pb²⁺ in tap water using just one fluorescent sensor, a few pH buffers and two sets of spectral data. This novel approach significantly decreases time and costs associated with probe synthesis and data collection, making it highly transferrable to real‐world metal sensing applications.

Photoresponsive macrocycles for selective binding and release of sulfate

A series of new photoresponsive macrocyclic anion receptors were synthesized via integration of an azobenzene unit and multiple anion binding sites. They exhibited highly selective binding to dianionic sulfate over other tested anions and the reversible release of sulfate could be triggered by visible light as inferred from mass spectroscopy, crystallographical analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and theoretical calculations.

Metal Ion Mediated Instant Z → E Isomerization of Azobenzene Macrocycles in the Absence of Light

The classical photoswitch azobenzenes reversibly interconvert between the E- and the Z-isomers with light. Here, we report a pair of new macrocyclic azobenzenes characterized thoroughly by spectroscopic methods and single crystal X-ray diffraction structures, and one of the compounds displays a quantitative conversion of the E- to the Z-form. These compounds, besides their normal photoswitching behavior, display an unusual instant switching of the Z-form to the E-isomer in the presence of Cu²⁺ ions in the dark under 273 K. The Cu²⁺ complex can stay in the Z-form under constant UV radiation. However, it reverts to the E-form as soon as the exposure to the UV is ceased. The same phenomenon is also observed with Ag⁺ ions albeit it is a bit slower. This unusual instant switching of the azobenzene systems with metal ions prompted the detailed studies to unravel the reason behind this behavior.

A Photoregulated Racemase Mimic

The racemase enzymes convert L-amino acids to their D-isomer. The reaction proceeds through a stepwise deprotonation-reprotonation mechanism that is assisted by a pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) coenzyme. This work reports a PLP-photoswitch-imidazole triad where the racemization reaction can be controlled by light by tweaking the distance between the basic residue and the reaction centre.

Optical sensing of anions by macrocyclic and interlocked hosts

This review summarises recent developments in the use of macrocyclic and mechanically-interlocked host molecules as optical sensors for anions.