N-Nitrosamines are a class of compounds known both for the potent carcinogenicity of many of its members and for their apparent ubiquity in the human environment, from air and water to our diets and drugs. Standard detection methods for these contaminants hinge on time- and labor-intensive sample preparation steps, followed by chromatographic separation coupled with mass spectrometry. The lack of inexpensive, portable methods for N-nitrosamine detection has hindered efforts to understand their formation and spread in the environment. Our work here focuses on the development of a portable, inexpensive detection method for aqueous N-nitrosamines by leveraging the well-known photolability of their N–N bond to produce a rapid optical response. In our two-step colorimetric detection scheme, N-nitrosamines first photochemically nitrosate a small-molecule indicator, and the product can then form an intensely colored complex with a subsequently added iron(II) salt. The reaction can be performed either under sunlight or using an inexpensive UV-A light, and our assay requires no extensive sample preparation or hazardous reagents to perform, making it promising for on-site nitrosamine testing.

Leveraging the photochemistry of N-nitrosamines for their aqueous detection

ACS Spring 2022

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