The first fluorescent sensor for radioactive pertechnetate anions has been developed by researchers in Italy and Switzerland.
Technetium-99 (99Tc) is a radioactive product of nuclear fission, whose presence in nuclear waste is a significant concern due to its long half-life. It is mainly handled on an industrial scale as the pertechnetate anion (99TcO4-). If released accidentally, environmental contamination with 99TcO4- can last thousands of years and poses a serious hazard. Valeria Amendola and co-workers at the University of Pavia and the University of Zurich have designed the first supramolecular host molecule that can fluorescently sense the presence of 99TcO4-.
The fluorescence of the receptor is quenched by adding pertechnetate anions
The fluorescence of the receptor is quenched by adding pertechnetate anions
Using a fluorescent probe to sense 99TcO4- could have significant advantages over current radiometric methods using b-counting by liquid scintillation (LSC), explains Amendola. ‘Direct determination of 99Tc by LSC is hard to achieve because of the presence of complex matrices, and sometimes insufficient sensitivity. The high sensitivity of optical chemosensors would allow the detection of low levels of the target anion in contaminated water samples, without special instrumentation.’
Encapsulating 99TcO4- using non-covalent interactions is more challenging than encapsulating…
Read the full article in Chemistry World»
Read the original journal article in Chemical Science:
Fluorescent sensing of 99Tc pertechnetate in water
Valeria Amendola, Greta Bergamaschi, Massimo Boiocchi, Roger Alberto and Henrik Braband
Chem. Sci., 2014, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C3SC53504E, Edge Article
