A smart chemosensor: Discriminative multidetection and various logic operations in aqueous solution at biological pH.

A novel rhodamine-pyrazole based molecular probe was designed and easily synthesized. The probe could to detect several analytes in aqueous solution at biological pH (HEPES, pH = 7.2). Several heavy metal cations, including Cu2+, Fe3+, Al3+, Hg2+ and Ni2+ were detected discriminately by the probe. Also, the novel compound exhibited a good sensory selectivity towards S2O52- by both absorption and emission spectra. Moreover, probe/Cu2+ complex could to detect several anions, including F-, CN-, S2-, CH3COO-, CO32- and NO2-. Furthermore, the probe exhibited a high potential to work as a molecular system able to perform a number of logical operations such as AND, NAND, NOR and INHIBIT logic gates.