Selective turn-on fluorescence sensing of Fe2+ in real water samples by chalcones

Abstract

The design of fluorescence sensor for selective detection of Fe2+ is very important as it is part of different biochemical redox system related to a number of diseases. In many occasion sensors are unable to distinguish Fe2+ from Fe3+ ions. In the present work, we report simple chalcone type sensors for sensing Fe2+ ions in semi aqueous system. The receptors R1 and R2 have showed excellent sensing properties at pH 7 in CH3OH-H2O (1:1, v/v) solvent system. The fluorescence emission intensity of the complexes between hosts and Fe2+ is least affected by the other competitive metal ions leading to the formation of very tight host–guest complex. The LOD for the R1 and R2 for Fe2+ are 1.91 μM and 3.54 μM respectively, which is quite low in compared to the many other reported sensors. The practical applicability of these sensors is determined by the detection of Fe2+ in real water samples. So chalcones would be cost effective PET inhibited fluorescence sensor for Fe2+.