A functionalized inorganic nanotube for the selective detection of copper(II) ion

The fabrication and coloration of the silica nanotubes (SNT) incorporated with receptor 1(SNT-1) for the selective detection of copper (II) ion, was investigated. The SNT was prepared by the established sol-gel polymerization of tetraethyl ortherisilane and after the calcination, incorporation of precursor 1 onto the SNT was carried out at reflux conditions for 24 h in toluene in order to obtain a highly dispersed organic moiety on the surface. The reaction mixture was then filtered, giving the desired product SNT-1 as a red-colored solid. The final solid product was characterized by several techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transition electron microscopy (TEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Results show that anchoring of molecular receptors onto suitable SNT supports can be a promising tunable tool for selectivity enhancement which may in principle be applied to the design of new chemosensors for a broad range of target species.