ROBUST DETECTION OF Hg2+ IONS AND VALIDATION USING NEWLY PREPARED THERMOSENSITIVE POLYMERIC GEL

The current report describes the fabrication of a polymer based on dithioacetalization of quinoline-2,4-dicarbaldehyde and characterized using spectroscopic techniques. The synthesized polymer showed the ability to form a temperaturedependent polymeric gel in a few solvents. The effect of varying solvent and temperature conditions was investigated for the polymeric gel. The synthesized polymer was used as a sensor to detect Hg2+ ions in various samples. In the presence of Hg2+ ions, the polymer acts as a turn-on fluorescence sensor, and the detection was achieved at 416 nm. The ability to sense the Hg2+ ions was investigated by analyzing different samples from different sources at a nanomolar scale. The effect of altering the concentration of Hg2+ ions on the durability of a polymeric gel and the sensing ability of the polymer was examined. The developed method for sensing Hg2+ ions was validated, and the limit of detection and quantification was calculated. The DFT calculations were performed to develop the lowest energy structures and HOMO-LUMO orbitals of the polymer.