Water-soluble diboronic acid-based fluorescent sensors recognizing D-sorbitol.

Herein, several boronic acid-based sensors were reported selectively recognizing D -sorbitol in aqueous solution. The fluorescence of sensor 15c was enhanced by 1.5-fold when combined with a low concentration of D -sorbitol (8.88 μM), and the fluorescence enhanced by 0.6-fold after binding to D -fructose, while it did not change obviously when combined with other carbohydrates, including D -arabinose, D -galactose, D -mannose, D -ribose, D -maltose, D -xylose, D -glucose and D -glucosamine. Fluorescence tests were carried out in DMSO/PBS (pH 9, 0.1 M) solution (1 : 99, v/v), at room temperature, which indicated that the sensors are water-soluble. In addition, competition studies showed that sensor 15c works well as a D -sorbitol-specific fluorescence sensor in both the absence and presence of carbohydrate interferents. And sensor 15c has a high binding constant (10 922 ± 776 M−1) and a low limit of detection (6.91 × 10−7 M) at pH 9 among the investigated sensors toward D -sorbitol. Furthermore, sensor 15c was applied to the analysis of real samples (D -sorbitol for oral administration). These studies indicated that sensor 15c may serve as a potential tool to detect the content of D -sorbitol in drugs and food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]