Real-time sensing of Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs) is today a crucial topic to
prevent the lethal effects of a terroristic chemical attack. For this reason, the development of
efficient, selective, sensitive and reversible sensoristic devices, able to detect by optical response
ppm levels of these compounds, is strongly required. Here, the synthesis of a new fluorescent
sensor based on a salen-uranyl scaffold, functionalized with two bodipy moieties, and
its application for the detection of sub-ppm levels of CWAs is reported. Detection properties
were evaluated by fluorescence measurements and selectivity tests demonstrated the strong
affinity for CWAs.
On the Optical Response of Nanoparticles: Directionality Effects and Optical Forces