Dimedone-decorated conjugated polymer: Tandem knoevenagel-michael post-modification synthesis and its application as optical probe for Hg2+ and ClO− in high-water-fraction mediums

High-efficiency, mild-conditioned tandem Knoevenagel–Michael reaction was utilized to post-modify aldehyde-containing, triphenylamine-based precursor conjugated polymer ( CP1 ) to afford dimedone-decorated aimed polymer ( CP2) . The chemical structure of CP2 was verified by FTIR and 1 H NMR analyses. With the introduction of aqueous Hg 2+ , fluorescence of CP2 in THF-water mixture ( V THF / V water = 1/100) (buffered with 5 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate-disodium hydrogen phosphate (PB), pH = 7.4) altered significantly, with the emission changed from blue to orange. Besides this, CP2 also displayed specific optical response to ClO − in another probing medium ( V THF / V water = 1/100, buffered with 50 mM PBS (with NaCl in PB, pH = 7.4). The detailed probing process and the plausible detection mechanism of CP2 to Hg 2+ and ClO − were systematically investigated here. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55 , 1067–1076