A selective and highly sensitive fluorescent probe of Hg2+ in organic and aqueous media: The role of a polymer network in extending the sensing phenomena to water environments

This paper describes the preparation of a hydrophilic copolymer membrane with two comonomers: 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (commercial) and a new water insoluble piperazinedione derivative, which is a fluorogenic mercury sensing motif. The dense membrane permitted the fluorogenic detection of Hg2+ in aqueous media. The sensitivity of the membrane this cation was significantly high, with a detection limit of 10 ppt. This limit of detection is much lower than that of DMSO/water solutions of the sensing monomer, which is 10 ppb, and significantly lower than the maximum contaminant level (EPA) in drinking water, 2 ppb.