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An Anthracene based fluorescent probe, 1-(Anthracen-2-yliminomethyl)-napthalen-2-ol (AIN), was synthesized via simple one-pot reaction from inexpensive reagents. Intriguingly, it exhibited novel AIE characteristics in H 2 O-THF mixtures at high water content. Size and growth process of particles in different volume percentage of water and THF mixtures were investigated using TRPL, DLS, SEM and optical microscope. The fluorescent aggregates exhibited distinct Hg 2+ -selective “on-off” type fluorescence switching upon binding. Additionally, the fluorescence quenching showed a linear correlation in the Hg 2+ concentration range from 0.3 to 3.6 μM and the limit of detection was estimated as low as ∼3 ppb. The drastic decrease in emission intensity of AIN aggregates was observed in the presence of mercury ions via a complex interplay through the ground state complexation between AIN and Hg 2+ ions and external heavy atom induced perturbation by Hg 2+ ions to the excited states of the AIN. A large Stern–Volmer quenching constant was estimated to be 2.54 × 10 5  M −1 . The proposed analytical system with clear AIE characteristics demonstrates a potential outlook for the on-site visual detection of Hg 2+ in paper strips. Finally, the sensory probe was also applied to determine the concentration of Hg 2+ in real water samples to demonstrate its practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel material showing aggregation induced enhanced emission (AIEE) is developed by reprecipitation method using 2,2′ biquinoline (BQN) in aqueous medium. Morphologies of the particles are characterized using optical and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) study. The selective fluorescence and absorbance response of aggregated BQN towards Zn 2+ and H + have been explained due to ground state complexation and protonation of BQN with Zn 2+ and H + respectively. Protonated BQN exhibits charge transfer character in transoid form with yellowish green emission but in BQN-Zn 2+ complex, BQN changes to cis planer conformation and displays considerable intra ligand charge transfer (ILCT) character with sky blue color under UV excitation. A 2:1 BQN-Zn 2+ complex have been confirmed using Job’s plot. Our study revealed that BQN hydrosol act as selective turn-on fluorescence sensor for Zn 2+ ion both in acidic and alkaline medium. Further, the proton induced charge transfer character and the proposed binding modes of the receptor with Zn 2+ have been supported by DFT based computational study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]