A quinoline group modified SBA-15 INHIBIT logic gate with [Cu2+ and Zn2+] or [Cu2+ and Cd2+] as inputs

In this study, highly ordered mesoporous silica material (SBA-15) functionalized with N-(quinoline-8-yl)-2-(3-triethoxysilyl-propylamino)acetamide (QTPA) as an INHIBIT (INH) logic gate was reported. The functionalized mesoporous SBA-15 silica (QTPA-SBA-15) was characterized by Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), 29Si solid state NMR spectra, N2 adsorption/desorption and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The characterization data indicated that the organic ligand was successfully grafted into the mesopores of SBA-15. The fluorescent characterization revealed that this material showed excellent selectivity to Cu2+ over other cations even in trace amount. Moreover, due to the fluorophore moiety presented in the channels of SBA-15, QTPA-SBA-15 can be considered as a selective fluorescent probe for Cu2+. The fluorescent changes of QTPA-SBA-15 upon the addition of cations (Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+) is utilized as an INH logic gate at the molecular level, using [Cu2+ and Zn2+] or [Cu2+ and Cd2+] as chemical inputs and the fluorescence intensity signal as output.