A naphthalene benzimidazole-based chemosensor for the colorimetric and on-off fluorescent detection of fluoride ion

Dongmei Li; Zhimin Zhong; Gengxiu Zheng; Zhongzhen Tian

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2017.05.053

A naphthalene benzimidazole-based chemosensor for the colorimetric and on-off fluorescent detection of fluoride ion

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2017 Oct 5:185:173-178. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2017.05.053. Epub 2017 May 24.

Authors

Dongmei Li¹, Zhimin Zhong¹, Gengxiu Zheng¹, Zhongzhen Tian²

Affiliations

¹ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fluorine Chemistry and Chemical Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Jinan, No. 336, West Road of Nan Xinzhuang, Jinan 250022, China.
² Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fluorine Chemistry and Chemical Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Jinan, No. 336, West Road of Nan Xinzhuang, Jinan 250022, China. Electronic address: chm_tianzz@ujn.edu.cn.

PMID: 28575816
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2017.05.053

Abstract

A novel naphthalene benzimidazole (NBI)-based chemosensor (D2) was developed for fluoride ion (F^-) detection. The absorption spectrum of D2 changed dramatically from yellow to blue in the visible region accompanied with a 225nm red shift of its absorption maximum upon the addition of F^- in DMSO. D2 also exhibited a fluorescence turn-off response towards the fluoride ion. The emission intensity of D2 decreased drastically along the increasing F^- concentration and the detection limit for F^- was as low as 3.2×10^-9mol/L. ¹H NMR and HRMS-ESI results indicated that the formation of NBI-O^- through the desilylation reaction of F^- with NBI-OSi was responsible for the spectral changes. Overall, this kind of NBI-type molecules represent a new type chemosensor for the spectral detection of fluoride ion in solution.

Keywords: Chemosensor; Desilylation reaction; Fluorescence quenching; Fluoride ion; Naphthalene benzimidazole.