Syntheses and evaluation of 7-deoxycholic amide-based tweezer-type copper(II) ion-selective ionophores

Seven tweezer-type copper(II) ion-selective ionophores; that is, 3α,12α-bis[[[N-(R)thiocarboxamino]acetyl]oxy]-N,N-dioctyl-5β-cholan-24-amides and 3α,12α-bis[[[N-(R)thiocarboxaminomethyl]acetyl]oxy]-N,N-dioctyl-5β-cholan-24-amides (R = alkyl and phenyl), were newly designed and synthesized. Their potentiometric evaluation of the poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membranes showed excellent affinity and selectivity to copper(II) ions over those of other transition metal ions and alkali/alkaline earth metal ions. These membranes exhibited super-Nernstian responses toward copper(II) ions (34–36 mV/decade), with detection limits of 10−6–10−7 M.