title: Colorimetric turn-on sensing of fluoride ions in H2O/CHCl3 mixtures by pyridinium boranes.
abstract: As part of our interest in chemistry of cationic boron compounds as anion receptors, we have synthesized 2-(4'-dimestylborylphenyl)-N-methyl-pyridinium triflate ([3]OTf) and 2-(5'-dimesitylborylthiophen-2-yl)-N-methyl-pyridinium triflate ([4]OTf) by reaction of the corresponding pyridyl derivatives with MeOTf. Both [3]OTf and [4]OTf extract fluoride ions biphasically (H2O/CHCl3) to form the zwitterionic fluoroborates 3-F and 4-F, which have been structurally characterized. Remarkably, fluoride binding induces a red-shift of the low energy absorption band of these boranes (from 319 nm to 368 nm for 3/3-F and from 355 nm to 430 nm for 4/4-F) leading to the appearance of a yellow color. The origin of this turn-on colorimetric response is attributed to an intramolecular charge transfer process involving the triorganofluoroborate moiety as the donor and the pyridinium moiety as the acceptor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Casey R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.forename: François P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Gabbaï
mesh_terms: D000838:Anions / Q000737:chemistry*; D001880:Boranes / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D003124:Colorimetry; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D005459:Fluorides / Q000737:chemistry*; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D011725:Pyridines / Q000737:chemistry*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D000838:Anions; D001880:Boranes; D011725:Pyridines; C023666:pyridine; D005459:Fluorides