Potassium selective chromoionophores

The ionisable chromoionophores5 were synthesised from simple precursors. These chromoionophores extract alkali metal cations from aqueous solutions at pH > 7 into dichloromethane. The ratio of extraction coefficients for the chromoionophore5c for K⁺ and Na⁺ indicate that it has potential for use in optical fibre sensors for K⁺ in the presence of Na⁺, Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ at extracellular concentrations.This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Dr C. J. Pedersen.