Lanthanide complexes with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) bis-amide ligands have been designed and synthesized for detecting capsaicinoids in aqueous solution.  The Tb(III) emission is drastically augmented upon titration with a model capsaicinoid. Capsaicin is a natural product found in hot peppers and has both potent pain-inducing and numbing properties.  Capsaicin consists of three functional regions that are important for binding to appropriate receptors, allowing it to serve as an interesting target in the design of lanthanide chelates for sensing capsaicin.  Current undergraduate research focuses on (1) synthesizing new lanthanide complexes for stronger binding of capsaicinoids and (2) spectroscopic studies to understand the binding and response mechanisms contributing to the observed responses.  A series of new molecules featuring multiple vanilloid units has been synthesized to elucidate the mechanism of response observed in the capsaicinoid-Tb(III) system.  The spectroscopic studies and synthesis shall be presented.

Mechanism of the luminescence response to capsaicinoids in new EDTA <i>bis</i>-amide Tb(III) chelates

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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Mechanism of the luminescence response to capsaicinoids in new EDTA bis-amide Tb(III) chelates