Simple ratiometric push–pull with an ‘aggregation induced enhanced emission’ active pyrene derivative: a multifunctional and highly sensitive fluorescent sensor

Abstract

A simple ratiometric push–pull and ‘aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE)’ active pyrene based compound, 2-(pyren-1-yl)pyridine (L), was synthesized and characterized by ¹H NMR, HRMS and SXRD. The synthesized compound was established as a highly selective and sensitive multi-functional sensor that exhibits a ratiometric fluorescent response, detecting picric acid, H⁺ and Al³⁺ [observed sensitivity: 56 nM (12.82 ppb) for picric acid; 2.4 nM (0.27 ppb) for trifluroacetic acid; 2.3 nM (0.86 ppb) for Al³⁺]. Both L and LH⁺ have shown emission tuning ability on varying their concentration in solution. Computational calculations (DFT and TD-DFT) have been correlated with the experimental spectroscopic properties.