Preparation of Hg2+ selective fluorescent chemosensors based on surface modified core–shell aluminosilicate nanoparticles

A synthetic procedure for the preparation of functional structured inorganic–organic hybrid materials consisting of boehmite-silica core–shell nanoparticles and anthracene-containing amines covalently attached to the nanoparticles surface is reported. The system functionalised with the monoamine chain shows a very high sensing performance for Hg2+ detection in pure water reaching a detection limit of 0.2 ppb. Two additional advantages of these systems are their stability over a wide pH window and the feasibility to be recovered by a simple procedure.