Mercury pollution is a serious hazard to our lakes and rivers. Mercury finds its way into the water through point-source discharges or atmospheric deposition, with Hg(II) its most environmentally mobile form. Mercury in the environment may also become methylated which increases its toxicity. The purpose of this research is to study thioamide ligands and analogs for complexation, extraction and sensing of Hg(II). The synthesis of these ligands is straightforward from only two synthetic steps from commercially available starting materials. Extraction experiments as well as UV-vis titrations of two different dithioamide ligands derived from dipicolininamide, and from the diamide of <i>o</i>-phenylendiamine in their deprotonated form with HgCl<sub>2</sub> in the presence of Diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA) showed a new absorption forming 280 nm in addition to the existing thioamide absorption a 216 nm. A trisulfonamide ligand was also found to optically sense mercury, with reasonable selectivities against several competing metal ions. We aim to expand this research into ligands that can effectively extract and sense Hg(II) upon contact with aqueous solutions.

Complexation, extraction, and sensing of Hg(II) by thioamide ligands and analogs

255th National Meeting (2018)

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