A new polymer-based fluorescent chemosensor incorporating propane-1,3-dione and 2,5-diethynylbenzene moieties for detection of copper(II) and iron(III)

Abstract

A novel conjugated polymer (PDBDBM) was developed by the polymerization of 1,4-dioctyloxy-2,5-diethynylbenzene with 1,3-bis(4-bromophenyl)propane-1,3-dione based on Pd-catalyzed Sonogashira-coupling reaction. The obtained polymer PDBDBM exhibited bright green photoluminescence under UV irradiation. According to the metal ion titration experiments, PDBDBM showed high sensitivity and selectivity for detection of Cu2+ and Fe3+ over other metal ions. The fluorescent detection limits of PDBDBM were calculated to be 5 nM for Cu2+ and 0.4 μM for Fe3+ and the Stern-Volmer quenching constant for Cu2+ and Fe3+ were found to be 1.28 × 108 M-1 and 2.40 × 104 M-1, respectively. These results indicated that the polymer can be used as a potential probe for Cu2+ and Fe3+ detection.