The selective and sensitive determination of biothiols in aqueous media has been great attention due to their important role in biological and pharmacological processes. We synthesized tryptophan functionalized perylene bisimide as a sensing chemosensor for mercury in aqueous solution. This complex between perylene dimide derivate (PDI/Trp) and mercury ions was evaluated and displayed to be turn on fluorescent chemosensor for the determination of biothiols in aqueous media. PDI/Trp showed fluorescence quenching in the presence of Hg2+ and the fluorescence was recovered after addition of biological thiols (cysteine, homocysteine and glutathione). Therefore, PDI/Trp can be employed as a fluorescence probe for the sequencial recognization of Hg2+ and biothiols in aqueous solution. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.
Keywords: Biothiols; Fluorescence; Mercury; Molecular sensor; Perylene.