Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

Cyclic voltammetry and potentiodynamic polarization techniques were used to study the effects of 4-[4-(1,3-benzothiazol-
2yl)phenoxy] phthalonitrile (BT) and tetrakis[(benzo[d]thiazol-2ylphenoxy) phthalocyaninato] gallium(III)chloride
(ClGaBTPc) as aluminium corrosion inhibitors in 1.0 M hydrochloric acid. The presence of the inhibitors in the concentration
range of 2 to 10 μM was found to retard the aluminium corrosion process such that the inhibition efficiency was found to range
from 28.2 to 76.1%for BTand from 71.5 to 82.7%for ClGaBTPc. The latter was a better inhibitor. Scanning electronmicroscopy
and energy-dispersive X-ray measurements reveal effective metal surface protection by the inhibitors, most probably by shielding
it from the corrosion attacks of Cl− from the acid. The calculated quantum chemical parameters agreed with experimental results

Beside different methods and materials used to develop electrochemical sensors, the modification of the electrode using click reaction based on metallophthalocyanine (MPc) compounds are shown to improve the stability and sensitivity of the sensor. This work reported the development of electrochemical sensor for mercury (II), Lead (II), copper (II) and cadmium (II) ions detection based on the synthesized novel low symmetry alkyne terminated cobalt Phthalocyanine (CoPc) derivative. Differential pulse stripping voltammetry (DPSV) technique was employed for the first time in simultaneous determination of trace levels of the above metal ions using modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) via click chemistry. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the anodic peak current is proportional to the concentrations of metal ions over a wide range of 0 to 0.1 mM with nanolevel detection limit of 81.94, 327.71, 55.87 and 347.06 nM and the sensitivity of 866.23 ± 5.48, 215.82 ± 2.16, 1979.48 ± 11.47 and 204.50 ± 1.10 μA/mM for Hg(II), Cu(II), Pb(II) and Cd(II), respectively. The selectivity of the clicked-CoPc modified GCE toward Hg(II), Cu(II), Pb(II), Cd(II) present no interference from these metals ions. The fabricated electrochemical sensor exhibited very good electrochemical properties such as good reproducibility, stability, reusability and is suitable for the detection of heavy metal ions in tap water in our laboratory.

The synthesis and characterization of a series of 3,5-di-p
-benzyloxystyrylBODIPY dyes with different substituents at the meso-aryl position is reported. The photophysical and nonlinear optical properties are described. BODIPYs of this type are found to be suitable for optical limiting at 532 nm on the nanosecond timescale. An enhancement of the population of the T1
state through the incorporation of bromine atoms at the 2,6-positions does not result in an enhancement of the optical limiting properties on a nanosecond timescale. This suggests that, in contrast with phthalocyanines, access to excited state absorption (ESA) from the T1
state through the introduction of a heavy atom effect does not provide a significantly improved reverse saturable absorbance response compared to ESA from the S1
state.