A Cucurbit[6]uril-Based Supramolecular Assembly as a Multifunctional Material for the Detection and Removal of Organic Explosives and Antibiotics

Abstract

Abstract A novel cucurbit[6]uril-based (CB[6]) supramolecular assembly H2NDS·CB[6] (1) (CB[6] = cucurbit[6]uril, H2NDS = 1,6-naphthalenedisulfonic acid) was successfully synthesized using H2NDS as the “structure inducer”. The fluorescence results showed that 1 could be used as a fluorescence sensor for the detection of organic explosives 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP), and isoquinoline antibiotics berberine (BER) and palmatine (PAL) in aqueous solution by fluorescence quenching at parts per billion (ppb) levels. Even more exciting, BER exhibits aggregation induced effect (AIE) functionality with 1 in aqueous solution through noncovalent interaction. We have successfully utilized this phenomenon to detect BER, and the limit of detection (LOD) was lower than the fluorescence quenching detection method by 1. This result suggests that we can use the AIE phenomenon of BER to further distinguish 4-NP and TNP from BER. Simultaneously, 1 also displays high adsorption abilities towards BER. As far as we known, there is no report of CB[6]-based supramolecular assembly for both detection and removal of antibiotics. This method is also applied to reliably and accurately detect these analyte concentrations in actual sample water and calf serum.