Porphyrin entrapment and release behavior of microporous organic hollow spheres: fluorescent alerting systems for existence of organic solvents in water

This work reports on the controllable guest entrapment and release behavior of microporous organic hollow spheres (MOHs). Porphyrins which are soluble in both water and methanol were entrapped in the MOHs using methanol solution. The water-soluble porphyrins entrapped in MOHs were not extracted by water due to the hydrophobicity of microporous organic shells. In contrast, the porphyrins were released gradually into aqueous solution by adding water-soluble organic solvents. The release behavior depended on the kind of organic solvents used and on the alkyl chain length of the porphyrin compounds. These properties were applied for the fluorescent alert towards the existence of organic solvents in flowing aqueous media.