New insights into the sensing mechanism of a phosphonate pyrene chemosensor for TNT

As security needs have increased, mechanism investigation has become of high importance in the development of new sensitive and selective chemosensors for chemical explosives. This study details a theoretical investigation of the sensing mechanism of a new phosphonate pyrene chemosensor for trinitro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP 2018, Vol.2 (29), p.19539-19545
Main Authors: Lu, Meiheng, Zhou, Panwang, Li, Zhongwei, Liu, Jianyong, Yang, Yanqiang, Han, Keli
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Charge transfer
Chemical sensors
Chemoreceptors
Electron transfer
Energy levels
Free energy
Gibbs free energy
Hydrogen bonds
Luminescence quenching
Molecular chains
Molecular orbitals
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Organic chemistry
Trinitrotoluene
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Summary:As security needs have increased, mechanism investigation has become of high importance in the development of new sensitive and selective chemosensors for chemical explosives. This study details a theoretical investigation of the sensing mechanism of a new phosphonate pyrene chemosensor for trinitrotoluene (TNT), suggesting a different interaction mode between the probe and TNT from the one previously reported. The invalidity of the mechanism of binding TNT through intermolecular hydrogen bonds was proved using the Gibbs free energy profile and 1 H NMR analysis. Frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs) analysis was used to show that photo-induced electron transfer (PET) is the underlying mechanism behind the luminescence quenching of the probe upon exposure to TNT, the rationality of which was further confirmed by the recording of a high charge transfer rate. We also found the existence of an energy level crossing between the local excited (LE) state and charge transfer (CT) state of a complex of the probe and TNT, which was confirmed using energy profile calculations along the linearly interpolated internal coordinate (LIIC) pathway. As security needs have increased, mechanism investigation has become of high importance in the development of new sensitive and selective chemosensors for chemical explosives.
ISSN:1463-9076
1463-9084
DOI:10.1039/c8cp01749b