Luminescence Lifetime-Based Sensor for Cyanide and Related Anions

Inorganic anions such as chloride, fluoride, and phosphate continue to be extensively used as food additives, drugs, and agricultural fertilizers. Cyanide has common industrial use as a raw material in the production of organic chemicals and polymers such as nitriles, nylon, and acrylic plastics.1 Cyanide is also critical to the gold-extraction process.2 Thus, the widespread application of cyanide raises a number of environmental concerns, particularly in terms of its retention in leech circuits, recovery, and potential for contamination.2 These issues necessitate the development of sensor molecules that can adequately detect these anions in a variety of settings. Optical sensors for anions have recently received considerable attention, focused mainly upon the supramolecular chemistry of receptor design.3 The binding event is typically monitored by changes in color, fluorescence intensity, or both from a chromophor