Di-oxime based selective fluorescent probe for arsenate and arsenite ions in a purely aqueous medium with living cell imaging applications and H-bonding induced microstructure formation.

A 2-hydroxy-5-methyl-benzene-1,3-dicarboxaldehyde di-oxime based turn-on blue emission fluorescent probe was found to recognize both AsO2(-) and H2AsO4(-) in a purely aqueous medium in intra and extra-cellular conditions. Self-organization of the ligand in the absence and presence of AsO2(-) and H2AsO4(-) was investigated by DLS, optical microscopy, optical fluorescence microscopy and FE-SEM methods.