Removing fluoride from drinking water
Excess fluoride in drinking water can have severe implications for human health, with effects ranging from dental and skeletal fluorosis, to the potentially fatal osteosarcoma (cancer of the bones).
Encapsulation of a fluoride-water cluster by an arene based tripodal receptor
Pradyut Ghosh and colleague, from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Kolkata, have developed a tripodal receptor based on a 1,3,5-methyl substituted benzene ring with nitro substituted aryl terminals, which can effectively encapsulate fluoride anions in solution. This bowl-shaped molecule is electron deficient, and upon exposure to electron rich fluoride anions, forms a dimeric capsule which sequesters the potentially dangerous fluoride anions away from the bulk of the solvent medium.
This technology could also be used to isolate reactive intermediates, which could help towards the understanding of reaction mechanisms, although the potential application of the method for the removal of fluoride anions from drinking water shows great promise.
Original publication: M. Arunachalam and Pradyut Ghosh, Chem. Commun., 2009.
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