An Al3+ induced green luminescent fluorescent probe for cell imaging and naked eye detection

Abstract

A novel pyrimidine based Al³⁺ selective fluorescent probe (L) has been synthesised by a facile one step coupling of 4,5-diamino pyrimidine with 2-hydroxy naphthaldehyde. L has been obtained in pure crystalline form without any column chromatographic purification. Upon binding Al³⁺, the single emission band of L undergoes red shift from 470 nm to dual emission peaks viz. 505 nm and 538 nm with appearance of a very intense green luminescence. L could detect as low as 2.9 × 10⁻⁷ M Al³⁺ with a binding constant value of 5.4 × 10⁴ M⁻¹. Al³⁺ contaminated cells became green in the presence of L making it suitable for intracellular Al³⁺ detection.