A novel highly selective fluorescent chemosensor for Hg(II) in fully aqueous media

A novel fluorescent Hg2+ chemosensor based on dithia-dioxa-monoaza crown ether was synthesized in four steps from inexpensive starting materials. This new sensor exhibited very strong fluorescence response to Hg2+(FHg2+/Ffree>130)(FHg2+/Ffree>130) and it was highly selective to Hg2+ over the other metal ions by more than 45-fold.