2-((E)-1-((E)-(2-methoxybenzylidene)hydrazono)ethyl)phenol based cost-effective sensor for the selective detection of Eu3+ ions

Abstract

The detection of lanthanides has emerged as an attractive field of research due to potential applications in biomedical sciences. Here we design a simple and cost-effective ligand 2-((E)-1-((E)-(2-methoxybenzylidene)hydrazono)ethyl)phenol (MHEP) that acts as a rapid selective sensor for Eu3+ ions with a blue shift in UV–visible, ratiometric enhancement in fluorescence intensity and significant redox potential changes in cyclic voltammetric graph among various metal ions in the CH3OH:H2O (1:1, v/v) solvent system. The UV–visible titrations are used to determine the limit of detection 1.2 × 10−7 M, the limit of quantitation 41 × 10−7 M and linear range 22 × 10−6 M−1 to 124 × 10−6 M−1 are determined. The binding stoichiometry is determined by Job’s plot, mole ratio method and Benesi-Hildebrand plot that is found 1:1 (MHEP:Eu3+) with association constant 2.360 × 105 M−1. The IR spectroscopy reveals the role of imine functionalities for the Eu3+ ions detection.