A stimuli responsive triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion system and its application as a ratiometric sensor for Fe3+ ions

Shuoran Chen; Fuming Chen; Pengju Han; Changqing Ye; Suqin Huang; Lei Xu; Xiaomei Wang; Yanlin Song

doi:10.1039/c9ra06524e

A stimuli responsive triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion system and its application as a ratiometric sensor for Fe³⁺ ions

RSC Adv. 2019 Nov 8;9(62):36410-36415. doi: 10.1039/c9ra06524e. eCollection 2019 Nov 4.

Authors

Shuoran Chen¹, Fuming Chen¹, Pengju Han¹, Changqing Ye¹, Suqin Huang¹, Lei Xu¹, Xiaomei Wang¹, Yanlin Song²

Affiliations

¹ Research Centre for Green Printing Nanophotonic Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Environmental Functional Materials, Institute of Chemistry, Biology and Materials Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology Suzhou 215009 P. R. China yechangqing@mail.usts.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 P. R. China.

Abstract

A ratiometric fluorescent sensor for the detection of Fe³⁺ ions is achieved based on triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) luminescence. A new anthracene derivative (named as DHTPA) is designed and synthesized and reveals similar optical properties to 9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA) and is used as a stimuli responsive annihilator in a TTA-UC system due to its complexation ability. As a result, the UC emission can be significantly quenched by Fe³⁺ ions, while the phosphorescence (PL) emission of sensitizer palladium(ii) octaetylporphyrin (PdOEP) remains nearly constant, which makes the PL signal an appropriate internal reference for the UC signal. The UC and ratio signals (I _UC/I _PL) both reveal a good linear relationship with Fe³⁺ ion concentration, which for the first time makes the TTA-UC system a perfect ratiometric sensor for Fe³⁺ ion detection. This sensing method will open a novel avenue to achieve ratiometric sensors in chemical and biological fields.