Efficient Detection and Removal of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Using Cyclodextrin‐Modified Cellulose

Abstract

Covalent functionalization of cellulose with β‐cyclodextrin by succinic acid‐promoted cross‐linking leads to a dual‐function material that efficiently promotes proximity‐induced energy transfer from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to squaraine fluorophores with high quantum yields, and removes PAHs from aqueous solution through non‐covalent binding. This material, which possesses a high functionalization density (0.17 μg/mm2 of cyclodextrin on cellulose), promotes energy transfer efficiencies as high as 58 % (for an anthracene donor in combination with a squaraine fluorophore acceptor), and leads to the removal of up to 91 % of a PAH (pyrene) from aqueous solution by mixing of the solution with the functionalized material. Overall, the high performance of this material in both proximity‐induced energy transfer and the removal of PAHs from water means that such a method has significant potential impact in a variety of real‐world environmental remediation scenarios.

Shining light on fluoride detection: a comprehensive study exploring the potential of coumarin precursors as selective turn-on fluorescent chemosensors

“…Of the aforementioned chemical detection methods, fluorescence-based detection has significant potential due to its high sensitivity and selectivity for a broad range of analytes, 10 combined with the recent development of user-friendly, inexpensive, portable detection systems. 11 Previous work in our groups has focused on the development of fluorescent and colorimetric chemosensors for a variety of analytes, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 12 cobalt(II) cations, 13 water, 14 sulfur dioxide, 15 nitrite, 16 and phosphate. 17 While a significant fraction of this work used bimane fluorophores as the transducing (i.e., signaling) element, the requirement for de novo synthesis and feature optimization of these novel bimanes limited the practical utility of these methods.…”

Preparation and Characterization of NiCoFe2O4 Nanoparticles as an Effective Catalyst for the Synthesis of Trisubstituted Imidazole Derivatives Under Solvent-free Conditions

“…40 Recently, some of the nanoparticles have been used as catalysts for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds. [41][42][43][44][45] Continuing our work on catalytic reactions, [46][47][48][49] we would like to report here on the preparation of NiCoFe 2 O 4 NPs as nanocatalysts for the four-component synthesis of tri-substituted imidazoles from benzil and aromatic aldehydes with ammonium acetate under solvent-free conditions.…”

Reusable Cavitand‐Based Electrospun Membranes for the Removal of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Water

“…There are only a handful of reports on this topic, using cyclodextrins. [26][27][28][29] Cyclophanes and metallacycles have proved to be selective receptors for the uptake of some PAHs in water, [30][31][32] but their recognition prowess has not been exploited into polymeric membranes so far.…”