A minimized fluorescent chemosensor array utilizing carboxylate-attached polythiophenes on a chip for metal ions detection

Abstract

Chemosensor arrays have a great potential for on-site applications in real-world scenarios. However, to fabricate on chemosensor array a number of chemosensors are required to obtain various optical patterns for multi-analyte detection. Herein, we propose a minimized chemosensor array composed of only two types of carboxylate-functionalized polythiophene derivatives for the detection of eight types of metal ions. Upon recognition of the metal ions, the polythiophenes exhibited changes in their fluorescence intensity and various spectral shifts. Although both chemosensors have the same polymer backbone and recognition moiety, only the difference in the number of methylene groups contributed to the difference in the fluorescence response patterns. Consequently, the metal ions in aqueous media were successfully discriminated qualitatively and quantitatively by the chemosensor microarray on the glass chip. This study offers an approach for achieving a minimized chemosensor array just by changing the alkyl chain lengths without the necessity for many receptors and reporters.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

metal ions / polythiophene / chemosensor array / fluorescence / pattern recognition

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Acknowledgements

Tsuyoshi Minami thanks JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. JP20K21204) and JST CREST (Grant No. JPMJCR2011). Yui Sasaki thanks JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. JP18J21190). We also thank Dr. Shin-ya Takizawa of the University of Tokyo for the measurements of emission quantum yield and lifetime.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-021-2037-y and is accessible for authorized users.

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