Tetraphenylethylene tethered 1-(pyridine-2-yl)imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine: Synthesis, aggregation induced emission, copper(II) ion detection and imaging of latent fingerprint

Abstract

The development of aggregation induced emissive probe with high sensitivity and selectivity for Cu2+ ions is a fascinating research in biomedical sciences. In this context, we have successfully synthesized an aggregation induced emissive probe for the selective detection of Cu2+ ions by incorporating a 1-(pyridine-2-yl)imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine arm in the tetraphenylethylene framework. The aggregates have been characterized using pivotal microscopic and photophysical measurements. The results exhibits that the aggregates have a spherical shape with an average size of 90 nm and a fluorescence quantum yield of ∼23 %. The aggregated fluorescent probe exhibited an excellent selectivity towards Cu2+ ions with a detection limit of 83 nM and presented a good efficacy over diverse environmental water samples. Furthermore, the quenching type is delineated as static due to complexation followed by deaggregation which was supported by dynamic light scattering and Tyndall effect experiments. In addition, the high solid state emissive property of the probe makes it a potential candidate for latent fingerprint analysis to gather level 2 and 3 information thereby playing a substantial role in forensic investigations.