Indicator approach to develop a chemosensor for the colorimetric sensing of thiol-containing water and its application for the thiol detection in plasma.

A strategy for the determination of the presence of thiol-containing amino acids was successfully established by simply assembling copper chloride and xylenol orange (3,3'-bis[N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)aminomethyl]-o-cresolsulfonephthalein trisodium salt; XO) in a 1 : 1 molar ratio in quasi-physiological water solution (pH 6.0). The copper(II)-XO ensemble was highly selective for thiol species such as cysteine, homocysteine, and glutathione without interference from other amino acids and could quantitatively detect thiol in the range from 10 to 200 μM with a linear relationship having an average molar absorbance constant of 6530 L mol(-1) cm(-1) in pure water. The whole recognition process for thiol gave rise to a rapid visual color change from purple-red to yellow which can be observed simultaneously with the naked-eye.