AIE‐Active ‘Turn‐On’ Sensors for Highly Selective Detection of Bovine Serum Albumin**

Abstract

AbstractTetraphenylethylene (TPE)‐based, two molecular ‘Turn‐On’ probes i. e. 4,4′,4′′,4′′′‐(ethene‐1,1,2,2‐tetrayl)tetraphenol (tetrahydroxy‐TPE, coded as: TPE‐1) 4,4′,4′′,4′′′‐(ethene‐1,1,2,2‐tetrayl)tetraaniline and tetraamino‐TPE, coded as: TPE‐2) have been successfully reported for the selective detection of bovine serum albumin (BSA) over its other biological competitors. The BSA sensing has been investigated using UV‐Vis absorption and fluorescence emission spectroscopy, where the fluorescence of probes tetrahydroxy‐TPE and tetra‐amino‐TPE was significantly enhanced in the presence of BSA. The BSA sensing was also characterized by visual eye detection, where a significant color change of probe tetrahydroxy‐TPE and tetra‐amino‐TPE was observed with BSA. The detection limit for BSA was calculated to be 0.2 nM and 1.41 nM for using probes tetrahydroxy‐TPE and tetra‐amino‐TPE, respectively. The binding constant was observed to be1.8×103 M and 1.4×103 M for probes tetrahydroxy‐TPE and tetra‐amino‐TPE, respectively. A molecular docking study is also performed to investigate the detailed interactions between probes tetrahydroxy‐TPE and tetra‐amino‐TPE with BSA. The lowest binding energy conformation for probes tetrahydroxy‐TPE and tetra‐amino‐TPE was found at −8.1 kcal/mol and −8.2 kcal/mol, respectively.