A Novel Colorimetric and Fluorometric Dual-Channel Chemosensor based on A Conjugated Perylene-Benzothiazole System for Highly Selective Detection of Cyanide in Aqueous Media.

A novel cyanine compound based on the conjugated perylene-benzothiazole system (PBI) as a colorimetric and fluorometric dual-channel sensor for cyanide (CN- ) detection was synthesized and characterized via UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. PBI exhibited a high sensitivity and rapid optical response for CN- due to the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. The detection limit of PBI for CN- was 1.15×10-7  M in the mixture of DMSO/H2 O (1 : 1, v/v). Moreover, probe PBI demonstrated high selectivity and sensitivity for CN- over other common anions, including Cl- , Br- , F- , I- , AcO- , ClO4 - , HSO4 - , SO4 2- , NO2 - , NO3 - and SCN- . This work provided a simple and effective approach to trace the toxic CN- ion with rapid response, high selectivity, and sensitivity that is possibly applied in environmental control and agricultural management.