Anion-activated, thermoreversible gelation system for the capture, release, and visual monitoring of CO2.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an important green house gas. This is providing an incentive to develop new strategies to detect and capture CO2. Achieving both functions within a single molecular system represents an unmet challenge in terms of molecular design and could translate into enhanced ease of use. Here, we report an anion-activated chemosensor system, NAP-chol 1, that permits dissolved CO2 to be detected in organic media via simple color changes or through ratiometric differences in fluorescence intensity. NAP-chol 1 also acts as a super gelator for DMSO. The resulting gel is transformed into a homogeneous solution upon exposure to fluoride anions. Bubbling with CO2 regenerates the gel. Subsequent flushing with N2 or heating serves to release the CO2 and reform the sol form. This series of transformations is reversible and can be followed by easy-to-discern color changes. Thus, NAP-chol 1 allows for the capture and release of CO2 gas while acting as a three mode sensing system. In particular, it permits CO2 to be detected through reversible sol-gel transitions, simple changes in color, or ratiometric monitoring of the differences in the fluorescence features.
Department of Chemistry and Nano Science and Department of Bioinspired Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.
Xin
X
Zhang
Department of Chemistry and Nano Science and Department of Bioinspired Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.
Songyi
S
Lee
Department of Chemistry and Nano Science and Department of Bioinspired Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.
Yifan
Y
Liu
Department of Chemistry and Nano Science and Department of Bioinspired Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.
Minji
M
Lee
1] Department of Chemistry and Nano Science and Department of Bioinspired Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea [2] Key Laboratory of Pesticide and Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, P. R. China.
Jun
J
Yin
Department of Chemistry, 125 E. 24th Street-Stop A5300, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1224, United States.
Jonathan L
JL
Sessler
Department of Chemistry and Nano Science and Department of Bioinspired Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.
Juyoung
J
Yoon