The dual colorimetric discrimination of dicyanovinyl−substituted poly(diacetylene) vesicle towards both dichloromethane and hydrazine with high selectivity

Functionalized poly(diacetylenes) (PDAs), which can exhibit distinct colorimetric and fluorescent transition in response to certain external stimuli, have received increasing interest as smart materials. In this contribution, a dicyanovinyl substituted PDA derivative was polymerized in the form of vesicle and its thermal stability was studied at first. Then some commonly used organic solvents were added into the vesicle aqueous solution, among which only dichloromethane induced a distinct, immediate, blue to red color change of the PDA vesicle, while the other solvents could not induce any detectable chromatic changes of PDA even after a prolonged period of time. More interestingly, upon the addition of various kinds of anions, cations, and chemical compounds, the PDA based vesicle solution only showed a clear blue−to−purple change in the presence of hydrazine, but it remained blue in the presence of other analytes. The specific mechanism for such high selectivity of this PDA derivative was studied depending on detailed experimental characterizations as well as theoretical calculation. To the best our knowledge, this is the first work reporting the dual colorimetric discrimination behavior of PDA material against two different kinds of external stimuli, which would broaden the application prospect of functional PDAs in the area of biochemical sensing and intelligent recognition. [Display omitted] •A new kind of polydiacetylene (PDA) vesicle with good thermal stability.•Dual colorimetric discrimination property of the PDA reported for the first time.•Selective response to dichloromethane with blue-to-red change of the vesicle.•Selective response to hydrazine with blue-to-purple change of the vesicle.