S. Jiang et al.
Dyes and Pigments 183 (2020) 108717
groups. SB-TPE emitted the red fluorescence with the Stokes shift of 215
nm. This far-red emission and large Stokes shift were also greatly
favourable for biological fluorescent probe [30].
3
.3. The sensor for metallic ions
The studying of sensing selectivity and sensitivity is of great signif-
icance. Therefore, the detecting abilities of SB-TPE for different metal
ions in THF/H
2
O at f
w
= 95% were studied by fluorescence spectros-
3
+
+
+
+
+
2+
2+
2+
2+
copy. Series of metal ions (nitrates of Y , Li , Na , K , Cs , Mg , Ca
,
,
2
+
+
2+
3+
3+
3+
3+
3+
2+
2+
2+
2+
2+
+
Sr , Ba , Al , Fe , Co , Ni , Cu , Zn , Cd , Ag , Hg , Mn
2
3+
3+
Pb , Ce , La , Eu , Sc and Pr ) were added into the solution of
SB-TPE to investigate the fluorescence change. As can be seen in Fig. 2,
compared with the fluorescence of SB-TPE with no metal ion, the
fluorescence intensities of SB-TPE after adding various cations fluctu-
ated in small ranges except Y3 . The changes could not be distinguished
+
by naked eyes. However, it could be observed that the fluorescence
3
+
emission at 575 nm enhanced significantly by about 2.7 times after Y
ꢀ
6
3+
Fig. 4. Fluorescence changes of SB-TPE (1 × 10 M) with Y in presence of
was added in the solution of SB-TPE. The enhanced fluorescence could
be seen obviously by naked eyes as shown in the inserted picture in
Fig. 2. These results certainly supported that SB-TPE possessed the se-
ꢀ 6
the other metal ions (1 × 10 M, each) in THF/H
2
O with f
w
3+
= 95%, I and I
o
3
+
were the fluorescence intensity of SB-TPE with Y or with Y and other metal
ion, respectively.
lective sensing abilities for Y3 among all these tested cations by the
+
“
turn-on” fluorescence phenomenon.
3
.4. Titration of sensing Y3
+
The detailed sensing behavior of SB-TPE for Y3 was studied by
fluorescence titration in THF/H O at f
= 95% with λex = 360 nm. As
shown in Fig. 3(a), the fluorescence intensities increased gradually with
+
2
w
3
+
the increase of equivalent concentration of Y . The rapid increase
occurred when the equivalent concentration of Y3 was smaller than
+
1
.0, and the slow increase appeared as the equivalent concentration
bigger than 1.0. These results suggested the inflection point for titration
was 1.0 of equivalent concentration, indicating the 1:1 of stoichiometric
ratio for SB-TPE with Y3 . Furthermore, the corresponding plot of
+
3
+
fluorescence intensities versus equivalent concentrations of Y was
exhibited in Fig. 3 (b). One can see that the fluorescence intensities of
SB-TPE displayed a good linear relationship with the equivalent con-
centration of Y3 in the range of 0.0–1.0. According to the formula of
detection limit DL = K × Sb1/S (where K = 2 or 3, here the value was set
as 2, Sb1 was the standard deviation of the blank solution, S was the
+
ꢀ
6
Fig. 5. The pH influence on the fluorescence intensities of SB-TPE (1 × 10
3
+
3
+
ꢀ 6
value of the slope of the regression line), the detection limit of Y was
M) with or without Y (1 × 10 M) in THF/H
2
O with f
w
= 95%, λex =
ꢀ 7
calculated as 2.23 × 10 M. By compared with the reported detection
limit and selectivity in literatures (Table S1) [1,2,33,42,43], this
detection limit was low and the selectivity was good, indicating the
3
60 nm.
1
3.09 ppm, 12.83 ppm and 8.84 ppm, respectively, which indicated the
excellent application prospect of sensing trace Y3
+
.
stable trans-structure of the Schiff-base group as shown in Scheme 1.
3
.5. Interference experiments and pH influences
3
.2. AIE properties
3
+
In order to further explore sensing selectivity of SB-TPE for Y , the
interference experiments for sensing Y3 were investigated in presence
+
2
Firstly, the AIE property of SB-TPE was studied in THF/H O system.
As shown in Fig. 1, SB-TPE has little fluorescence in pure THF solution.
With the increase of H O content (f ) in THF/H O mixture, the fluo-
rescence maintained faintly when f < 70% but enhanced dramatically
when f > 70%. The fluorescence intensity at 590 nm reached the
maximum value when f
= 95%, which increased by 81 times in com-
parison with that in pure THF solution. The fluorescence quantum yields
of SB-TPE in pure THF solution and THF-H O with 95% were deter-
of other metal ions. The results were shown in Fig. 4. It can been seen
2
w
2
that these values of I/I
o
were near 1.0, suggesting that the fluorescence
3
+
w
intensities of SB-TPE for Y
changed a little in presence of other
w
interference metal ions. These results meant the excellent sensing
selectivity of SB-TPE for Y3 . The pH influences on fluorescence sensing
were also explored as shown in Fig. 5. It was found that the fluorescence
remained stable between pH = 4–8. When the pH > 8, the fluorescence
intensity decreased rapidly, which could be ascribed to that, in the so-
lution of high pH values, the carboxyl and phenolic hydroxyl of SB-TPE
were easily deprotonated, resulting in the good water solubility and low
fluorescence finally. SB-TPE was treated at different pH and then
neutralized to pH = 7, which was further examined by the UV absorp-
tion spectra. The results suggested that the absorption peaks showed no
obvious change (Fig. S9), indicating the good stability of SB-TPE at
different pH. The stable fluorescence in pH = 4–8 were favourable for
+
w
2
mined as 0.4% and 25.6%, respectively. These results certainly sup-
ported the strong AIE effect for SB-TPE. On the other hand, the
fluorescence emission of SB-TPE appeared at 550–670 nm in the far-red
region, which showed obvious red shift than that of normal TPE de-
rivatives at 450–550 nm. This phenomenon could be attributed to the
effect of the large conjugated effect associated with the Schiff-base
bridge and the push-pull electron effect of electron-donating abilities
of the hydroxyl group and the electron-withdrawing abilities of carboxyl
4