A Phenothiazine-Thiophene-linked Chalcone as a Highly Sensitive Fluorescent Chemosensor for Ag+ Ions

A novel Phenothiazine-Thiophen Chalcone (PTC) sensor exhibit selective fluorescent recognition of Ag+ ions over other potential influencing metal ions. A turn off fluorescence was observed with addition of Ag+ ion which revealed through naked eye detection with red to colorless solution after addition of Ag+ ion. The optical sensing activities were investigated with UV-Visible and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques in acetonitrile/water (6 : 4, v/v) mixture. The ligand PTC showed quenching in absorbance and fluorescence with increasing addition of Ag+ ions that related to the static quenching due to ground state complex formation. The sensor PTC established a lowest detection limit of about similar to 10(-8) m and good binding equilibrium. The binding and optical sensing mechanism of PTC with Ag+ was evaluated using FT-IR, NMR, ESI-MS and optical spectrum. The surface morphology of the probe and its ensemble was investigated by using SEM and EDAX analysis. Also the environmental applications have shown that the results of PTC have the greatest potential in testing using different water samples.