A julolidine-chalcone-based fluorescent probe for detection of Al³⁺ in real water sample and cell imaging

A fluorescent probe 1 based on julolidine-chalcone derivative, which can specifically recognize aluminum ion with high selectivity and anti-interference, was developed. Probe 1 has good fluorescence stability and can detect Al³⁺ with turn-on fluorescence in a wide pH range of 4.0-9.0. The probe has good repeatability for the detection of Al³⁺ and fluorescence turn-on and off can be repeated with the alternate Al³⁺ and EDTA. The sensing mechanism is speculated that Al³⁺ will coordinate with hydroxyl oxygen and carbonyl oxygen on the probe through in situ ¹H NMR and HRMS combing with Job's plot. The probe can also detect Al³⁺ in actual water samples and applied to monitor Al³⁺ in biological system.