Fluorescent Heavy-Metal Water Sensor
Official patent title
Method of heavy metal ion detection using chemosensors
Arabic title: طريقة للكشف عن أيونات المعادن الثقيلة باستخدام مستشعرات كيميائية
Invention
Invention
Problem
Monitoring heavy-metal ions in water can require costly laboratory instrumentation, while organic fluorescent sensors may face stability, matrix-interference, selectivity, or scalable-production challenges.
Why it matters
A fluorescence-based reagent for aqueous metal-ion detection could support simpler screening workflows, but selectivity, calibration, detection limits, matrix effects, reagent stability, and field performance must be independently validated.
Approach
The method contacts an aqueous sample with the potassium salt of 5-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzylidene) thiazolidine-2,4-dione, forms a complex with a target heavy-metal ion, and measures the resulting fluorescence emission.
Who may benefit
Potential beneficiaries include water-quality laboratories, environmental monitoring teams, industrial effluent operators, sensor and reagent developers, academic analytical-chemistry groups, and field-testing platform manufacturers.
Potential value
The patent combines a defined thiazolidinedione potassium salt, a disclosed synthesis route, a fluorescence readout, target-ion classes, pH conditions, and concentration-related emission ranges in one sensing method.
Background
Background
Mining waste, industrial discharge, landfill leachate, agriculture, and urban runoff can introduce heavy metals into water, making routine monitoring important. Established techniques include chromatography, atomic spectroscopy, ICP-MS, electrochemistry, electrophoresis, and ion-selective electrodes, but they may require costly equipment or centralized analysis, especially outside well-equipped laboratories. Fluorescent organic chemosensors offer a different readout mechanism through metal binding at sulfur, oxygen, or nitrogen sites, although stability, matrix interference, selectivity, and production remain practical concerns.
Technology overview
Technology overview
The sensing reagent is a potassium salt of 5-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzylidene) thiazolidine-2,4-dione. It is contacted with a pH 1–10 aqueous sample containing at least 0.1 µM of a listed metal ion, including Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Hg, or Ni, and fluorescence is measured after complex formation. The salt is prepared through chloroacetic acid/thiourea formation of thiazolidine-2,4-dione, condensation with a trisubstituted benzaldehyde, and reaction with potassium hydroxide. Claims further define lead- and cadmium-related fluorescence conditions and optical properties.
Potential applications
Potential applications
- Potential screening of lead or cadmium in aqueous samples.
- Potential laboratory studies of copper, zinc, mercury, or nickel response.
- Potential reagent platform for industrial-effluent monitoring workflows.
- Potential integration into optical sensing systems after validation.
Evidence-supported advantages
Evidence-supported advantages
- Uses a fluorescence readout after formation of a metal complex.
- Identifies six target heavy-metal ion types.
- Discloses a synthesis route for the sensing salt.
- Defines pH, concentration, wavelength, and emission conditions.
Development stage
Development stage
Patent publication with a described sensor synthesis and fluorescence method; independent validation and commercialization were not established.
Commercial opportunity
Commercial opportunity
The chemistry may interest water-test reagent, fluorescence-instrument, and environmental-monitoring developers. Productization requires blinded calibration, limit-of-detection and quantitation studies, ion-by-ion selectivity, mixed-ion and natural-water interference tests, reagent purity and shelf life, response time, portable optical integration, quality-control methods, hazardous-reagent handling, benchmark comparisons, and regulatory acceptance for the intended monitoring claim.
Patent classifications
Patent classifications
WIPO IPC
- G01N33/18Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
- C07D277/34Heterocyclic compounds
CPC
- C07D277/34Heterocyclic compounds
- G01N21/64Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
- G01N21/77Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
- G01N33/1813Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
- G01N2021/7786Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
Inventors
Inventors
- First inventorHani Nasser Abdelhamid
- InventorFaisal Khuwayshan L Algethami
- InventorHussein El-Kashef
Keywords
Keywords
- chemosensor
- heavy metal ions
- fluorescence
- thiazolidinedione
- lead detection
- cadmium detection
- aqueous sample
- potassium salt
Patent document and drawings
Patent document and drawings
The patent publication is mapped to this record. Patent drawings remain within that publication; no separately cleared public media package has been supplied.