Triazole-imidazole (TA-IM) derivatives as ultrafast fluorescent probes for selective Ag⁺ detection

1,2,3-Triazole-imidazole derivatives (TA-IM) were prepared as fluorescent probes for silver ion detection. The design principle is the incorporation of an intramolecular H-bond between the imidazole and triazole moiety that enables a co-planar conformation to achieve fluorescence emission in the UV-blue range. Screening of different metal ions revealed excellent binding affinity of this new class of compounds toward silver ions in aqueous solution. The novel probe provided ultrafast detection (<30 s) even for a very low concentration of silver ions (in the nM range) with good linear correlation, making it a practical sensor for detection of silver ions.