ИСТИНА

The solution of environmental and medical monitoring problems requires the development of different types of sensors with high selectivity and sensitivity for the determination of toxins that are found in various objects of ecosphere, including the human body. Despite significant progress made in field of organic synthetic chemistry of molecules-receptors for sensory systems, many of the existing sensors can be used only in organic solvents. Therefore, one of the key issues and trends in research on supramolecular sensing is development of "smart" miniature diagnostic devices which can work in aqueous medium. In this work various types of optical sensors with high selectivity and sensitivity for the determination of metal cations in aqueous solutions are considered. Sensors are produced from 1,8-bis(amino)anthraquinone-based ligands endowed with hydrophilic diethoxyphosphoryl groups and two alkyl chains [1-2]. The colorimetric sensors with absolute selectivity allow one to carry out both visual and spectrophotometric determination of mercury cations in water without sample preparation. Liquid and solid-state thin-film sensors, produced by Langmuir monolayers and Langmuir-Blodgett film techniques, are capable of selectively determining mercury cations in aqueous solutions up to 10-8 M. Highly sensitive SPR (surface plasmon resonance) sensors for the selective determination of Hg2+and Cu2+ cations in an aqueous medium to 10-11 M and 10-15 M, respectively, and polymer films and test strips for the rapid analysis of these cations are developed. These sensors possess the necessary sensitivity and selectivity for the direct determination of mercury and copper levels, as required for industrial-process, waste-disposal, or environmental monitoring or even for household applications. Thus, the directed design of modular anthraquinone-based ligands, as well as supramolecular assembly have allowed one to create a highly selective colorimetric, liquid and solid film sensors for determination of metal ions in aqueous solutions.