Heteroaromatic donors in donor-acceptor-donor based fluorophores facilitate zinc ion sensing and cell imaging.

The excited state intra molecular charge transfer (ICT) property of fluorophores has been extensively used for the design of fluorescent chemosensors. Herein, we report the synthesis and properties of three donor–π-acceptor–π-donor (D–π-A–π-D) based molecular probes BP, BT and BA. Two heteroaromatic rings, pyrrole (BP), and thiophene (BT) and a non-heteroaromatic ring N-alkoxy aniline (BA) were selected as donor moieties which were linked to a bipyridine binding site through a vinylic linkage. The heteroaromatic systems BP and BT perform selective and ratiometric emission signalling for zinc ions whereas the non-heteroaromatic probe BA does not. The advantages of the D–π-A–π-D design strategy in the design of ICT based probes for the selective fluorescent ratiometric signalling of zinc ions in biological media is discussed. Further, the use of BP, BT and BA for imaging Zn(2+) ions from MCF-7 cell lines is demonstrated.