An efficient Turn-ON fluorescent probe for fluoride ions – Meticulous investigations and development of arduino microcomputer integrated smartphone device

Abstract

Design and development of simple, affordable and ‘turn-ON’ fluorescent probes for fluoride ion sensing is an incessant research target over the decades. In this context, we have developed the new benzothiophene derivatives for the selective detection of trace-level fluoride ions. The synthesized derivatives were meticulously characterized using pivotal techniques and contented results were accomplished. Intriguingly, the developed probe is selectively responded to a trace amount of fluoride ions. The fluorescence quantum yield of the probe is also enhanced upon introducing the fluoride ion, thus this probe could be act as a ‘turn-ON’ fluorescent probe. The mechanism of fluoride ion detection was elucidated using 1H NMR and FT-IR investigations. The recovery and reversibility studies of the probe were conducted and the probe was stable upto 10 cycles. On the other hand, a portable Arduino-based platform is developed for the first time to validate the experimental results. The arduino microcomputer device is interfaced with the RGB sensors which identify the colour changes and quantifies fluoride concentration with respect to the RGB values. The RGB results were also shared to the developed android application through wired/wireless tethering. The application is also designed to share the data with remote users through cloud platform.