BODIPY-based fluorometric sensor array for the highly sensitive identification of heavy-metal ions

•Indicators based on BODIPY and di-2-picolyamine derivatives were designed.•12 cross-reactive BODIPY indicators provide facile identification of the heavy metal ions.•The collected images were digitized for the semi-quantitative discriminations.•Array technologies and pattern-recognition were combined.

A BODIPY(4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene)-based fluorometric sensor array has been developed for the highly sensitive detection of eight heavy-metal ions at micromolar concentration. The di-2-picolyamine (DPA) derivatives combine high affinities for a variety of heavy-metal ions with the capacity to perturb the fluorescence properties of BODIPY, making them perfectly suitable for the design of fluorometric sensor arrays for heavy-metal ions. 12 cross-reactive BODIPY fluorescent indicators provide facile identification of the heavy-metal ions using a standard chemometric approach (hierarchical clustering analysis); no misclassifications were found over 45 trials. Clear differentiation among heavy-metal ions as a function of concentration was also achieved, even down to 10−7 M. A semi-quantitative interpolation of the heavy-metal concentration is obtained by comparing the total Euclidean distance of the measurement with a set of known concentrations in the library.

Graphical abstractA BODIPY-based fluorometric sensor array has been developed for the highly sensitive detection of eight heavy metal ions at micromolar concentration. 12 cross-reactive BODIPY fluorescent indicators provide facile identification of the heavy metal ions using a standard chemometric approach (hierarchical clustering analysis); no misclassifications were found over 45 trials. Clear differentiation among heavy metal ions as a function of concentration was also achieved, even down to 10−7 M.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide