Luminescent terpyridine appended geminal bisazide and bistriazoles: multinuclear Pt(ii) complexes and AIPE-based DNA detection with the naked eye

Abstract

We report square planar Pt(II) complexes as luminescent biosensors for DNA detection in solution. The sensing is attributed to the aggregation induced bright red photoluminescence (AIPE) of the complexes in the presence of DNA that can be seen with the naked eye using only a 360 nm light source. Terpyridine appended luminescent geminal bistriazoles (L1–L4, from geminal bisazide A through azide–alkyne ‘click’ cycloaddition) with versatile chelating sites were explored for metal coordination and reaction with Pt(dmso)₂Cl₂ yielding tetranuclear and dinuclear complexes of Pt(II) with different N∩N ligand environments. Thermally stable gem-bisazide and bistriazoles are hardly reported in the literature and this is the first report of terpyridine appended geminal bisazide and bistriazoles.