Pyrazoline-Based Fluorescent Probe: Synthesis, Characterization, Theoretical Simulation, and Detection of Picric Acid

2-Pyrazoline containing benzothiazole ring 2-[1-(1,3-benzothiazol-2-yl)-5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-3-yl]phenol (BP) have been synthesized for the effective identification of picric acid over other competing nitro compounds using fluorescence technique. The pyrazoline BP showed quenching efficiency as high as 82% comparative to other nitro aromatics. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 1.1 μM and 3.3 μM. The possible mechanism with the quenched PA detection efficiency was based on fluorescence energy transfer and photoinduced electron transfer. Moreover, the observed results were supported by the optimized structures of the compounds using the DFT/B3LYP/6-311G/LanL2DZ method. Eventually, the pyrazoline derivative BP was further utilized for natural water samples, showing recoveries in the 87.62-101.09% and RSD was less than 3%.

An aggregation induced emission active bis-heteroleptic ruthenium(II) complex for luminescence light-up detection of pyrophosphate ions

A red emissive ruthenium(II) complex 1[PF6]2 of an amino ethanol substituted 1,10-phenanthroline-based ligand (L1) has been developed and characterized by spectroscopic analysis and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Complex 1 shows an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) enhancement and forms nano-aggregates in the poor solvent water and highly dense polyethylene glycol (PEG) media. The possible reason behind the AIE properties may be the rigidity gained through weak supramolecular interactions between neighbouring phenanthroline ligands and PF₆^- counterions. The AIE properties were supported by UV-vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies to substantiate the formation of nano-aggregates and to understand the morphology of the aggregated particles, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies were performed. Compound 1[PF6]2 was highly selective towards pyrophosphate ions (PPi) over other phosphates such as ATP, ADP, AMP and H₂PO₄^- ions and other competitive anions in the PL spectroscopic channel in acetonitrile. The PL titrations of 1[PF6]2 with PPi in CH₃CN furnished the association constant K_a = 1.08 × 10⁴ M^-1 and the detection limit was calculated as low as 1.54 μM. The PPi detection has been established through the unique H-bonding interaction, supported by ¹H NMR titration. Finally, the cytotoxicity study and bioimaging were carried out for biological application. The complex shows very low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility and is suitable for intracellular PPi imaging.

Tetrabenzo[b,de,gh,j][1,10]phenanthroline: a nitrogen-doped nanographene as a selective metal cation and proton fluorophore

A nitrogen-doped nanographene molecule tetrabenzo[b,de,gh,j]-[1,10]phenanthroline (TB(phen)) was generated for selective transition metal cation sensing or as a proton fluorophore.