A new water-soluble copper(II) complex as a selective fluorescent sensor for azide ion.

{[Cu(2)(H(2)L)(OH)(H(2)O)].(ClO(4))(2)(H(2)O)} (1) serves as a selective azide ion fluorescent sensor in aqueous medium. 1 binds with N(3)(-) to give [Cu(6)(HL)(2)(mu(1,1)-N(3))(6)] (2) which imposes rigidity and decreases the non-radiative decay of the excited state to give rise to fluorescent enhancement. 1 is highly selective over other various anions in aqueous medium.