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Updated: Jul 18, 2025

A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments
Published on: October 2, 2012
Optical detection of alcohols with a Cu(I)HETPHEN complex by reversible aldehyde to hemiacetal conversion
Lei Wang1,2, Zhu-Lin Xie2, Xin Li1
1School of Materials and Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China. leiwang@usst.edu.cn.
Abstract:
A heteroleptic copper(I) bis(phenanthroline) complex with aldehyde groups at the 4,7 positions of the phenanthroline ligand was synthesized. The complex is responsive to alcohol, resulting in a distinct colour change caused by the facile reaction of the aldehyde group with alcohol, forming a hemiacetal product. The aldehyde species can be regenerated after heating the intermediate at 80 °C for 10 minutes, demonstrating the reusability of the complex for alcohol detection. This work presents a new strategy for applying transition metal complexes in small molecule sensing by installing functional groups in the secondary coordination sphere which reversibly react with analytes.
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