A new chemosensor doped sol gel for Thorium(IV) determination

Abstract

Abstract Herein, Diferuloylmethane (Curcumin) doped in a sol-gel thin film was introduced as a Thorium Th(IV) chemosensor. The suggested chemosensor exhibits a substantial decrease in fluorescence signal upon exposure to an aqueous solution containing Th(IV). To learn more about the coordination mode, sites, and quantum properties, computational work was done using the density functional theory (DFT). A lower predicted formation energy for the curcumin/Th(IV) complex (−9.57 × 104 eV) than for the free curcumin (−3.42 × 104 eV) has been found. While the dipole moment of the free Curcumin was 9.7955 debye, that of the Curcumin/Th(IV) complex was 40.6876 debye, which was greater. This implies that Curcumin and Th(IV) are well-coordinated. The suggested chemosensor can detect Th(IV) ion in aqueous solution throughout the range of 1.0 × 10−8 to 9.0 × 10−7 mol L−1, at pH 5, with a lower detection limit (LOD) of 2.50 × 10−8 mol L−1 and a lower quantification limit (LOQ) of 7.58 × 10−8 mol L−1. The effects of interference ions were investigated. Applications for determining Th(IV) directly in real samples produced findings that exhibited good agreement with results from inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The suggested chemosensor indicated outstanding performance features for Th(IV) including selectivity, long-term response stability, and high repeatability.