An efficient new dual fluorescent pyrene based chemosensor for the detection of bismuth (III) and aluminium (III) ions and its applications in bio-imaging.

A new simple pyrene based schiff base chemosensor 1 (nicotinic acid pyren-1-ylmethylene-hydrazide) has been constructed and is prepared from 1-pyrenecarboxaldehyde and nicotinic hydrazide. Notably, the chemosensor 1 exhibited remarkable colour changes while in the presence of trivalent metal ions like Bi3+ & Al3+ ion in DMSO-H2O, (1:1 v/v, HEPES = 50 mM, pH = 7.4). The UV-Vis spectral investigation of chemosensor 1 showed that the maximum absorption peak appeared at 378 nm. In emission studies, chemosensor 1 develops weak fluorescence, while upon the addition of Bi3+ and Al3+ ions, it exhibits an enhancement of fluorescence intensity. Nevertheless, rest of metal ions have no changes in the emission spectra. The association constant of chemosensor 1 for binding to Bi3+ & Al3+ system had a value of 1.27 × 104 M-1 and 1.53 × 104 M-1. The detection limits were 0.12 µM for Bi3+ and 0.17 µM for Al3+ respectively. The overall results reveal that chemosensor 1 can act as a dual-channel, highly selective, and sensitive probe for Bi3+ and Al3+ ions. Moreover, the fluorescence imaging of chemosensor 1 was applied in RAW 264.7 cell line and cytotoxicity assay prove that this chemosensor 1 is non-toxic as well as highly biocompatible.