A Novel Naphthalene-Immobilized Nanoporous SBA-15 as a Highly Selective Optical Sensor for Detection of Fe(3+) in Water.

A novel organic-inorganic hybrid optical sensor (SBA-NCO) was designed and synthesized through immobilization of isocyanatopropyl-triethoxysilane and 1-amino-naphthalene onto the surface of SBA-15 by post-grafting method. The characterization of materials using XRD, TEM, N2 adsorption-desorption, and FT-IR techniques confirmed the successful attachment of organic moieties and preserving original structure of SBA-15 after modification step. Fluorescence experiments demonstrated that SBA-NCO was a highly selective optical sensor for the detection of Fe(3+) directly in water over a wide range of metal cations including Na(+), Mg(2+), Al(3+), K(+), Ca(2+), Cr(3+), Mn(2+), Fe(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), Cu(2+), Zn(2+), Cd(2+), Hg(2+), and Pb(2+) in a wide pH values.