Polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane tethered perylene diimide for application in optical limiting and rapid detection of fluoride ions.

A novel perylene diimide derivative equipped with polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane nanocages (POSS-AMPDI) was designed and synthesized for application in optical limiting. Moreover, due to the dual mechanisms of POSS collapse and intermolecular proton transfer, POSS-AMPDI exhibits high sensitivity and rapid selectivity to fluoride ions, with a detection limit as low as 1.64 × 10-8 M.