A Novel Naphthalene-Immobilized Nanoporous SBA-15 as a Highly Selective Optical Sensor for Detection of Fe3+ in Water

A novel organic-inorganic hybrid optical sensor (SBA-NCO) was designed and synthesized through immobilization of isocyanatopropyl-triethoxysilane and 1-amino-naphthalene onto the surface of SBA-15 by post-grafting method. The characterization of materials using XRD, TEM, N₂ adsorption-desorption, and FT-IR techniques confirmed the successful attachment of organic moieties and preserving original structure of SBA-15 after modification step. Fluorescence experiments demonstrated that SBA-NCO was a highly selective optical sensor for the detection of Fe³⁺ directly in water over a wide range of metal cations including Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Al³⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Cr³⁺, Mn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Hg²⁺, and Pb²⁺ in a wide pH values.