Photochemical Sciences Ph.D. Dissertations

Title

Sensing of Anions, Amines, Diols, and Saccharides by Supramolecular Fluorescent Sensors

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Photochemical Sciences

First Advisor

Pavel Anzenbacher (Advisor)

Second Advisor

Joshua Atkinson (Other)

Third Advisor

Peter Lu (Committee Member)

Fourth Advisor

Alexis Ostrowski (Committee Member)

Abstract

With first appearance of science and all the way to the present, analytical chemistry plays crucial role in our daily life that depends on chemical analysis. Qualitative analysis that deals with determination of substances in an analytical sample along with quantitative analysis has many applications in medicine, biochemistry, industry, geology, and environmental science. In the last decades, chemosensor systems, that provide the effective and rapid detection of target chemical species, became one of the major focus in chemistry. The development of new optical sensors, such as colorimetric and fluorescence probes, is of the strong interest because of their fast response time, high sensitivity, their simplicity, and overall cost-effectiveness. The main focus of this dissertation work is on the development new fluorescent sensors and probes as well as cross-reactive sensor arrays for identification and quantification of various target molecules. The important advantage of cross-reactive sensor arrays is their potential to simultaneously recognize and quantify multiple analytes. This dissertation work consists of three major parts. The first part provides information about dual chromophore self-assemblies that were utilized as chiral sensors for enantiomeric excess determination in diols, hydroxy acids, amines, and amino alcohols. In the second part of this work the application of dual-chromophore sensors based on 2-formylphenylboronic acids for sensing of carbohydrates in complex media is discussed. The third part of the dissertation deals with fluorescent cross-reactive sensors designed for the recognition of various anions, such as chloride, phosphate, acetate, and oxalate.

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