Novel mercury sensor based on water soluble styrylindolium dye

A novel water soluble Hg2+-selective chemosensor using a styrylindolium dye as both colorimetric and fluorometric reporting group has been synthesized and characterized. The chemosensor exhibits a specific Hg2+ selectivity to discriminate between Hg2+ and chemically close ions by using a NO2S2 chelating unit as the ion binding site. Due to the Hg2+-induced intramolecular charge transfer, the chemosensor shows a visible colorimetric change from red to yellow, leading to potential production of both visual and fluorometric detection of Hg2+ cation both in water and in aqueous ethanol solutions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.