Selective Chromo-Fluorogenic Chemoprobe for nM Al Recognition: Experimental and Living-Cell Applications.

A rhodamine based chemoprobe BESN was engineered and employed as a selective ''OFF-ON'' chromo-fluorogenic sensor for Al in HO:MeOH (1:9, v:v). Notable changes in the absorption and emission spectra of BESN were clearly detectable upon the addition of Al. Sensitivity and binding mechanism studies demonstrated a good sensing performance of BESN with nanomolar detection limit (130 nM), and it was found to be highly selective towards interfering metal ions. Besides, the binding constant between BESN and Al was found to be 3.19 × 10 M. Then, the validation study of BESN for Al was performed based on significant analytical parameters and statistical tests. The binding of Al with BESN (1:1) was probed via infrared, high-resolution mass and emission (Job's plot) spectroscopy measurements. The sensing performance of BESN could make it ideal chemosensor for real applications including vegetable, tuna fish and water samples, also for Smartphone and test-kit applications. The recovery values of the BESN to Al were estimated within a range from 95.13% to 105.30% for water, 94.63% to 109.62% for tuna fish and 94.80% to 109.80% for vegetable samples. Additionally, the BESN has very low cytotoxicity and was triumphantly utilized for the recognition of Al in living-cells.