Visible light-induced ion-selective optodes based on a metastable photoacid for cation detection.

A new platform of ion-selective optodes is presented here to detect cations under thermodynamic equilibrium via ratiometric analysis. This novel platform utilizes a 'one of a kind' visible light-induced metastable photoacid as a reference ion indicator to achieve activatable and controllable sensors. These ion-selective optodes were studied in terms of their stability, sensitivity, selectivity, and theoretical aspects.