New pyrazolo-quinoline scaffold as a reversible colorimetric fluorescent probe for selective detection of Zn 2+ ions and its imaging in live cells

Abstract

Abstract A simple colorimetric fluorescent chemosensor 1-[5-(2-chloro-6-methylquinolin-3-yl)-3-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro- 1H -pyrazol-1-yl]ethan-1-one ( L ) based on pyrazoline has been designed, synthesized and characterized. The sensing properties of L were studied using UV–visible and fluorescence spectrophotometric analyses. L showed excellent selectivity towards Zn 2+ ions over other metal ions in aqueous media through “OFF-ON” type process and a possible photoinduced electron transfer (PET). The viability of L to Zn 2+ has been demonstrated by live cell imaging.