Pseudo-crown ether having AIE and PET effects from a TPE-CD conjugate for highly selective detection of mercury ions

作     者：Kai-Ran Zhang Ming Hu Jun Luo Fengying Ye Ting-Ting Zhou Ying-Xue Yuan Miao-Li Gao Yan-Song Zheng Kai-Ran Zhang;Ming Hu;Jun Luo;Fengying Ye;Ting-Ting Zhou;Ying-Xue Yuan;Miao-Li Gao;Yan-Song Zheng

作者机构：Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and StorageMinistry of EducationSchool of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringHuazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan 430074China Tongji School of PharmacyHuazhong University of Science and TechnologyWuhan 430030China 

出 版 物：《Chinese Chemical Letters》 (中国化学快报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2022年第33卷第3期

页      面：1505-1510页

核心收录：

学科分类：081704[工学-应用化学] 07[理学] 08[工学] 0817[工学-化学工程与技术] 070302[理学-分析化学] 0703[理学-化学] 

基　　金：National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos. 91856125 and 21673089) HUST Graduate Innovation Fund for financial support 

主　　题：Tetraphenylethylene-cyclodextrin conjugate Aggregation-induced emission Self-inclusion compound Photo-induced electron transfer Mercury ion sensor Highly selective Pseudo-crown ether 

摘      要：A new tetraphenylethylene-cyclodextrin (TPE-CD) conjugate with a linkage composed of long triethylene glycol chain and triazole ring on the CD rim has been designed and synthesized. The TPE-CD conjugate exists in a stretched form in DMSO and enhances its fluorescence after addition of a small amount of water due to aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. However, in the presence of a large amount of water, the TPE unit will enter the cyclodextrin cavity to form a folded self-inclusion compound. In the self-inclusion compound, not only nitrogen-containing pseudo-crown ether is formed but also arouses photo-induced electron transfer (PET) process from nitrogen atoms of triazole ring to TPE unit and quenches the fluorescence although more aggregation occurs in more water. This is the first finding that TPE-macrocycle conjugate can form pseudo-crown ether and has both the AIE phenomenon and the PET effect. Interestingly, only mercury ion arouses the fluorescence recover of the self-inclusion compound by entering the pseudo-crown ether cavity and blocking the PET process by binding to the nitrogen atoms, while other tested metal ions almost have no effect on the fluorescence. Therefore, the TPE-CD conjugate can be used for the highly selective fluorescence Turn-On detection of Hg^(2+).