Selective detection of resorcinol using a bis(benzothiazol-2-yl)pyridine based ditopic receptor

• First report on the use of ditopic receptor based host molecule which can selectively recognize resorcinol, a benzene metabolite which has adverse effect on environment.
• 1,6-bis(2,6-bis(benzothiazol-2-yl)pyridine-4-yloxy)hexane, a selective chemical sensor has been designed, synthesized and applied for sensing of resorcinol among all other common phenols.
• The sensing could be easily followed by spectroscopic techniques like UV–visible, photoluminescence and nuclear magnetic resonance.
• A plausible selective host guest binding mechanism is proposed with the help of principles of supramolecular interactions.

1,6-bis(2,6-bis(benzothiazol-2-yl)pyridine-4-yloxy)hexane, bbh, reported here, is the first specific ditopic receptor which selectively recognizes resorcinol among its structurally identical benzene metabolites like phenol, hydroquinone and catechol. Based on this molecule bbh, an easy detection system for monitoring the supramolecular recognition via changes in photoluminescence has been devised and discussed. Host guest binding interactions have been characterized using simple spectroscopic techniques viz. UV–visible and NMR spectroscopy, which are in agreement with the details of photoluminescence based detection technique.

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