Fluorescent Sensors for the Selective Detection of Uranyl

Abstract

Abstract The widespread use of uranium as the basis of fissile fuels in the civil nuclear sector among others, along with the long half-lives of its isotopes, has generated a substantial long-term safe storage requirement for this toxic, environmentally mobile radioactive material. The detection of uranium and uranyl contamination and clean-up efficacy monitoring requires the development of suitable measuring technologies with low limits of detection and quantification ideally coupled with potential for field deployment with persistent interest and need for improvement. Chapter one of this thesis introduces some of the literature around uranium and uranyl chemistry analytical techniques utilised in uranium species contamination detection and monitoring culminating in recent developments in alternative fluorescent detection systems. Chapter two describes the experimental methods of photophysical, synthetic, and computational studies employed in this work. Chapter three presents the synthesis of a series of neutral and charged transition metal polypyridyl complexes that possess a catechol binding site with suitable geometry for interacting with uranyl species. A photophysical study of these systems is described alongside the uranyl responsive luminescence behaviour including Stern-Volmer analysis. Chapter four presents a modified calmodulin (CaM) protein with CF350 dye attached to investigate the detection of uranium in the presence of competitor analytes utilising relative fluorescence and Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) efficiency.

Date of Award	31 Oct 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Louise Natrajan (Main Supervisor) & Sam Hay (Co Supervisor)