Mix-&-Read Determination of Mercury(II) at Trace Levels with Hybrid Mesoporous Silica Materials Incorporating Fluorescent Probes by a Simple Mix-&-Load Technique.

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr. Knut Rurack at the Department of Analytical Chemistry; Reference Materials at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in Berlin (Germany). The cover picture shows how differences in color and fluorescence on a test strip can be easily read out with a mobile device. Two reference spots frame the sensitive spot that indicates the presence of trace amounts of HgII below the threshold in a natural water sample. This dipstick contains a hybrid material that combines boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) probes sterically loaded into specifically tailored mesoporous silica particles, allowing for ultrasensitive HgII detection through enhanced fluorescence in a few seconds. The applicability in real water samples and fish extracts are also studied. Read the full text of their Full Paper at https://doi.org/10.1002/open.201800111.