An azodye–rhodamine-based fluorescent and colorimetric probe specific for the detection of Pd2+ in aqueous ethanolic solution: synthesis, XRD characterization, computational studies and imaging in live cells†
Abstract
Azodye–rhodamine hybrid colorimetric fluorescent probe (L) has been designed and synthesized. The structure of L has been established based on single crystal XRD. It has been shown to act as a selective turn-on fluorescent chemosensor for Pd2+ with >40 fold enhancement by exhibiting red emission among the other 27 cations studied in aqueous ethanol. The coordination features of the species of recognition have been computationally evaluated by DFT methods and found to have a distorted tetrahedral Pd2+ center in the binding core. The probe (L) has been shown to detect Pd up to 0.45 μM at pH 7.4. Furthermore, the probe can be used to image Pd2+ in living cells.