A mesoporous silica functionalized by a covalently bound pyridine derivative for selective optical sensing of thymidine

Fluorescent receptor 1 immobilized mesoporous silica (FMS) possessing the diaminopyridine moiety as a fluorescent receptor was fabricated by sol–gel reaction. The binding ability of FMS with nuclobases was evaluated by fluorophotometry. Interestingly, among nucleobases, addition of thymidine to a suspension of FMS in water resulted in the largest decrease in fluorescence intensity of diaminopyridine in FMS. These results indicate that FMS recognizes selectively thymidine in nucleobase.