Triphenylamine-thiophene dyad as a Chemodosimeter for specific recognition of cyanide ions in aqueous solutions

Abstract

Triphenyl amine-thiophene conjugated with benzothialzole derivative TP-1 have been synthesized and explored as new colorimetric and turn-on fluorescent Chemodosimeter for cyanide anions. The probe TP-1 showing a discrete visible color change from dark yellow to colorless and subsequently the fluorescence intensity gets increased after addition of the cyanide anions, it's very selective towards cyanide ions. The probe is showing the increase in fluorescence with cyanide ions in the linear range 1–100 μM. The limit of detection for cyanide ions by the probe TP-1 was found to be 4.24 × 10−8 M. The observed absorption, fluorescence changes was further supported by density functional theory calculations and the internal charge transfer mechanism is takes place while addition of cyanide ions. Further low cytotoxic behavior of TP-1 makes the probe feasible for live cell detection of cyanide ions.