A water-soluble thio-coumarin as a probe for mercury (II) in an aqueous medium based on a desulfurization mechanism

A water-soluble fluorescent and colorimetric chemosensor Ls based on the thio-coumarin moiety to monitor Hg2+ cations in water has been synthesized and characterized. The chemosensor Ls acts through the specific desulfurization reaction catalyzed by mercury (II) cations to the corresponding coumarin derivative, which selectively exhibits a blueshift in spectroscopic data of Ls in water. The limit of detection of Hg2+ cations was found to be 8.58 nM. Furthermore, the chemosensor Ls was successfully used to sense and evaluate the quantity of Hg2+ cations in biological and environmental media.