Pyrene chemosensors for nanomolar detection of toxic and cancerogenic amines

In this work, we report the development of three pyrene labeled compounds, some of them dendritic, (PyOH, PyNK1OH and PyNK2OH) able to act as potential chemosensors for the detection of amines in aqueous solutions. These compounds were studied by excitation and emission fluorescence spectroscopy and their sensing ability was tested with some toxic and cancerogenic amines, such as piperidine, diethylamine, triethylamine, N-methylaniline and N,N-dimethylaniline. All the pyrene labeled molecules exhibited highly sensitive detection limits at nanomolar concentration of the analyte (quencher). This impressive capacity is due to the elevated affinity between the basic analytes and the terminal carboxylic acid groups present in the periphery of the dendritic sensors. The detection range depends in a big measure on the steric hindrance of the dendritic structure of pyrene labeled compounds. All the sensors showed an accurate response towards the analytes, which act as quenchers.