Highly Sensitive Sensors for the Detection of Nitro Compounds Based on Pyrene Labeled Dendrons

In this paper, we describe the synthesis and characterization of four novel pyrene labeled compounds, some of them dendritic, which can act as potential sensors for the detection of nitro compounds in methanol solution. Methanol was selected as solvent due to its polar properties, which provide similar characteristics to water. The obtained pyrene labeled molecules (PyOH, Pytb, PyNK1OH and PyNK1tb) were studied by UV-Vis and steady state fluorescence spectroscopy. Their application as sensors has been tested with three different nitro compounds: nitrobenzene, 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene and nitromethane. PyOH and Pytb showed a detection concentration limit for the analyzed quenchers in the order of nM, making these compounds suitable for high-sensitive sensoring. PyNK1OH and PyNK1tb displayed high sensibility at A mu M concentration. All the sensors showed an accurate response towards quencher analytes.