"Turn-on" fluorescent sensor for Th4+ in aqueous media based on a combination of PET-AIE effect

Shibing Chen; Shengjie Jiang; Hongyu Guo; Fafu Yang

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2020.119191

"Turn-on" fluorescent sensor for Th⁴⁺ in aqueous media based on a combination of PET-AIE effect

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2021 Mar 5:248:119191. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2020.119191. Epub 2020 Nov 14.

Authors

Shibing Chen¹, Shengjie Jiang¹, Hongyu Guo², Fafu Yang³

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Materials, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, PR China.
² College of Chemistry and Materials, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, PR China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, Fuzhou 350007, PR China.
³ College of Chemistry and Materials, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, PR China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, Fuzhou 350007, PR China; Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou 350007, PR China. Electronic address: yangfafu@fjnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33239250
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2020.119191

Abstract

Previously reported fluorescent sensors for Th⁴⁺ experienced emission quenching or generated false positive signal upon aggregate formation in aqueous media. Herein, a simple and novel thorium sensor (CDB-BA) based on cyanodistyrene structure was designed and synthesized, which integrated the highly emitting characteristic of AIE effect and off-on response of PET modulation for the first time to construct the "turn-on" fluorescent probe for Th⁴⁺. Besides excellent selectivity, CDB-BA exhibited remarkable fluorescent enhancement which was linearly related to the concentration of Th⁴⁺ in the range of 0.25-8 μM. The detection limit was attained 0.074 μM, which was lower than that of most previously reported sensors. The mechanism of tris-chelate complex of CDB-BA with Th⁴⁺ was confirmed by mass spectra, IR spectra and DFT calculation. The excellent Th⁴⁺ sensing ability of CDB-BA was successfully applied to detecting Th⁴⁺ on TLC plates, in real water samples and living-cell imaging. This work suggested that the combination of AIE and PET photophysical mechanism could offer the merits of minimized background and enhanced signal fidelity to develop novel "turn-on" fluorescent probe in complicated aqueous environment and biological research.

Keywords: Aqueous media; Fluorescence; Sensor; Th(4+); Turn-on.

MeSH terms

Fluorescent Dyes*
Positron-Emission Tomography
Water*

Substances

Fluorescent Dyes
Water