Deploying hydrogen bond donor/acceptor on arylethynyl scaffold I: PN-heterocycles and urea based cleft ionophores for hydrosulfide/hydrosulfate selective electrodes

Abstract A series of PN-heterocycles and urea based cleft receptors containing hydrogen bond donor/acceptor groups complementary with hydrosulfide/hydrosulfate were used for the first time as ionophores to fabricate polymeric membrane hydrosulfide/hydrosulfate ISEs, while similar potentiometric sensors have rarely been reported. ISEs exhibiting Nernstian or near-Nernstian responses to hydrosulfide/hydrosulfate with improved selectivity over lipophilic anions and halides were obtained by optimizing the membrane component such as lipophilic additives and plasticizers. Selectivity for hydrosulfide or hydrosulfate can be manipulated simply by deploying the hydrogen bond donor/acceptor in a subtle way. For real-life applications, the optimized ISEs with good reversibility and improved detection limits were employed for hydrosulfide/hydrosulfate determination in water samples.