A mechanosynthesized, sequential, cyclic fluorescent probe for mercury and iodide ions in aqueous solutions.

A fluorescent Hg(2+)-selective chemosensor, 2,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone (1), was quantitatively prepared by grinding 2,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde and thiosemicarbazide together in a ball mill for 15min. The excitation and emission maxima of compound 1 are 347 and 450nm, respectively. The reaction of this ligand with Hg(2+) was investigated by FT-IR, (1)H NMR, and fluorescence titration. Results show that the composition of the resulting Hg complex 1-Hg is 2:1 1:Hg, and that the S and imino N atoms serve as the binding sites of the ligand to the Hg(2+) ions. Coordination-assisted fluorescence quenching results show that compound 1 exhibits a highly selective fluorescence response to trace amounts of Hg(2+) in water. More importantly, the resulting complex 1-Hg can be used as a turn-on fluorescence probe for I(-) at a detection limit of 8.4×10(-8)M. Thus, compound 1 is a relatively stable, sequential, cyclic fluorescent probe for Hg(2+) and I(-).