Alternating Poly(borosiloxane) for Solid State Ultrasensitivity Toward Fluoride Ions in Aqueous Media

Facile synthesis of alternating copolymer poly­(borosiloxane) via dehydrocoupling was successfully carried out in the presence of transition metal catalyst at room temperature. The polymer was characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy. The presence of a single peak in 11B NMR and 29Si NMR supported the alternating sequence of the polymer which was further complimented by the study of specifically designed model reactions. Fluoride ion sensitivity was analyzed by electrochemical methods.. The anion selective electrode prepared using synthesized polymer was found to be extremely sensitive toward fluoride ions (10–10 M in aqueous media) by potentiometric measurements using 0.1 M disodium hydrogen phosphate as supporting electrolyte, Ag/AgCl as reference electrode, and Pt wire as counter electrode.