The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

With the advancement of lithium-related technologies, detecting lithium through various methods has become increasingly important for future applications. In this seminar, I will present our laboratory's recent efforts in developing molecular lithium sensors. First, we have developed 19F NMR-based lithium detection. By utilizing crown ethers capable of binding lithium and fluorine reporters, we can detect lithium by monitoring electronic changes around the fluorine atoms, which leads to a change in the 19F NMR chemical shift. Second, we have explored naphthoxazoline derivatives as lithium-responsive materials. They exhibit photophysical changes upon lithium binding through the modulation of conjugation, enabling lithium detection without the use of crown ethers. This approach is more economical and potentially scalable for large-scale production. We currently aim to polymerize these sensing units to fabricate colorimetric functional polymer films that detect lithium.