TD-DFT study on the excited-state proton transfer in the fluoride sensing of a turn-off type fluorescent chemosensor based on anthracene derivatives.

The sensing mechanism for fluoride chemosensor based on anthracene structure has been investigated by DFT and TDDFT methods. The results show that the similar geometries in S(0) and S(1) states in the absence of the fluoride anion induce the local excited (LE) state over the anthracene moiety, which is responsible for the strong fluorescence. The fluorescence quenching phenomenon for F-coordinated complex can be explained by the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process from benzylic amide to anthracene moiety. Moreover, the strong electronegativity for fluoride anion in the F-complex constructs the intermolecular hydrogen bond of N-H…F in the ground state. In contrast, the upper proton in the urea group close to phenyl group prefers to bind fluoride anion in S(1) state of the F-complex, and it presents excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) to form another hydrogen bond like N…H-F, which has been confirmed by natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis and the potential energy curve of S(1) state for the function of N-H bond. In this novel and efficient fluoride fluorescent chemosensor based on anthracene, the anthracene moiety is regarded as not only the fluorescent source, but the template for introducing the binding sites for fluoride anion.