Probing ternary complex equilibria of crown ether ligands by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

Ternary complex formation with solvent molecules and other adventitious ligands may compromise the performance of metal-ion-selective fluorescent probes. As Ca(II) can accommodate more than 6 donors in the first coordination sphere, commonly used crown ether ligands are prone to ternary complex formation with this cation. The steric strain imposed by auxiliary ligands, however, may result in an ensemble of rapidly equilibrating coordination species with varying degrees of interaction between the cation and the specific donor atoms mediating the fluorescence response, thus diminishing the change in fluorescence properties upon Ca(II) binding. To explore the influence of ligand architecture on these equilibria, we tethered two structurally distinct aza-15-crown-5 ligands to pyrazoline fluorophores as reporters. Due to ultrafast photoinduced electron-transfer (PET) quenching of the fluorophore by the ligand moiety, the fluorescence decay profile directly reflects the species composition in the ground state. By adjusting the PET driving force through electronic tuning of the pyrazoline fluorophores, we were able to differentiate between species with only subtle variations in PET donor abilities. Concluding from a global analysis of the corresponding fluorescence decay profiles, the coordination species composition was indeed strongly dependent on the ligand architecture. Altogether, the combination of time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy with selective tuning of the PET driving force represents an effective analytical tool to study dynamic coordination equilibria and thus to optimize ligand architectures for the design of high-contrast cation-responsive fluorescence switches.