A novel "turn-on" fluorescent probe (PCN) was designed, synthesized, and characterized with perylene tetracarboxylic disimide as the fluorophore and Schiff base subunit as the metal ion receptor. The probe demonstrated a considerable fluorescence enhancement in the presence of Al3+ in DMF with high selectivity and sensitivity. Furthermore, the considerably "off-on" fluorescence response simultaneously led to the apparent color change from colorless to brilliant yellow, which could also be identified by naked eye easily. The sensing capability of PCN to Al3+ was evaluated by the changes in ultraviolet-visible, fluorescence, Fourier transform-infrared, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, and high-resolution mass spectrometry spectroscopies. The linear concentration range for Al3+ was 0-63 μM with a detection limit of 0.16 μM, which allowed for the quantitative determination of Al3+.
Keywords: Al3+; fluorescence; hydrolysis; perylened derivatives; turn on.
Copyright © 2020 Liu, Gao, Yang, Liu, Liang, Ye and Fu.