Abstract

Herein, a new fluorescence turn-on chemosensor 2-(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenoxy)acetic acid (TPE-COOH) specific for Al3+ was presented by combining the aggregation-induced-emission (AIE) effect of tertaphenylethylene and the complexation capability of carboxyl. The introduction of carboxylic group provides the probe with good water-solubility which is important for analyzing biological samples. The recognition toward Al3+ induced the molecular aggregation and activated the blue fluorescence of the TPE core. The high selectivity of the probe was demonstrated by discriminating Al3+ over a variety of metal ions in a complex mixture. A detection limit down to 21.6 nM was determined for Al3+ quantitation. Furthermore, benefiting from its good water solubility and biocompatibility, imaging detection and real-time monitoring of Al3+ in living HeLa cells were successfully achieved. The AIE effect of the probe enables high signal-to-noise ratio for bioimaging even without multiple washing steps. These superiorities make this probe a great potential for the functional study and analysis of Al3+ in complex biosystems.