Monitoring the Competence of a New Keto-tetrahydrocarbazole Based Fluorosensor Under Homogeneous, Micro-Heterogeneous and Serum Albumin Environments.

We present here a detailed photophysical study of a recently synthesised fluorophore 8-methyl-8,9-dihydro-5H-[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-b]carbazol-6(7H)-one. This is a synthetic precursor of bio-active carbazole skeleton Clausenalene. Spectroscopic investigation of the fluorophore has been carried out in different protic and aprotic solvents, as well as in binary solvent mixtures, using absorption, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence techniques. This fluorophore is particularly responsive to the hydrogen bonding nature as well as polarity of the solvent molecules. When considered in micelles and β-cyclodextrin, this behaves as a reporter of its immediate microenvironment. Steady state and time resolved fluorometric and circular dichroism techniques have been used to explore the binding interaction of the fluorophore with transport proteins, bovine serum albumin and human serum albumin. The probable binding sites of the fluorophore in the proteinous environments have been evaluated from fluorescence resonance energy transfer study. Laser flash photolysis experiments also have been performed to observe the triplet excited state interaction between the fluorophore and albumin proteins.