A Simple Colorimetric Chemosensor for Naked Eye Detection of Cyanide Ion

A simple cyanide chemosensor tetranitrile compound 1 was designed and synthesized via an efficient method in the presence of nanoporous SBA-Pr-NH2 as the catalyst. The chemosensor exhibited high selectivity and sensitivity for detecting CN¯ among different anions through a visual color change from light yellow to purple. The results confirmed that the chemosensor 1 causes the color of the solution to change depending on the concentration of CN¯. Linear changes of the optical properties of the sensor as a function of the concentrations of CN¯ was proved. The detection limit of 3.07 × 10-7 M was calculated for CN¯. A simple paper test strip system for the rapid detection of CN¯ was developed. The TD-DFT calculations were carried out to understand the sensing mechanism.