Anthracene Based AIE Active Probe for Colorimetric and Fluorimetric Detection of Cu2+ Ions.

A novel aggregation induced emission (AIE) active anthracene based dihydroquinazolinone derivative (probe 1) has been synthesized and characterized by means of spectroscopic methods. The photophysical properties of this probe have been investigated in solvents of different polarity display that fluorescence states are of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) character. Probe 1 show clear AIE behavior in water/THF mixture on reaching water fraction 95%. The AIE behavior of probe 1 have been exploited for the detection of metal ions in aqueous solution which reveals high selectivity and sensitivity towards Cu2+ ions by colorimetrically and function as a chemosensor in a remarkable turn-off fluorescence manner. Further, the experimental results were investigated by computational means by optimizing the ground state geometries of probe 1 and probe 1-Cu complex using density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/6-31G** and B3LYP/6-31G**(LANL2DZ) levels of theory. Intra-molecular charge transfer was observed in probe 1 while ligand to metal charge transfer (LMCT) for probe 1-Cu complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]