A New Fluorescent Salen-uranyl Sensor for the Sub-ppm Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents

Real-time sensing of Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs) is today a crucial topic to prevent the lethal effects of a terroristic chemical attack. For this reason, the development of efficient, selective, sensitive and reversible sensoristic devices, able to detect by optical response ppm levels of these compounds, is strongly required. Here, the synthesis of a new fluorescent sensor based on a salen-uranyl scaffold, functionalized with two bodipy moieties, and its application for the detection of sub-ppm levels of CWAs is reported. Detection properties were evaluated by fluorescence measurements and selectivity tests demonstrated the strong affinity for CWAs.