A long-range emissive mega-Stokes inorganic-organic hybrid material with peripheral carboxyl functionality for As(v) recognition and its application in bioimagingElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. CCDC 1559082. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c7dt02387a. This crystal structure was previously reported by Y. Suenaga et al., Polyhedron, 1998, 17, 2207, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5387(98)00043-6 [ref. 45(b)]

• Main Authors: Venkateswarulu, M, Gambhir, Diksha, Kaur, Harpreet, Daniel, P. Vineeth, Mondal, Prosenjit, Koner, Rik Rani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/c7dt02387a

We demonstrate a strategy for the recognition of As 5+ in aqueous solution using a red-emissive probe based on a perylene-Cu 2+ ensemble decorated with peripheral free carboxyl functionality. Single crystal analysis helped us to understand the chemical structure of the probe. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first probe for arsenic detection which emits in the red region ( λ em = 600 nm). The perylene-Cu 2+ ensemble exhibited a mega-Stokes shift (>100 nm) with a high degree of selectivity upon interaction with As 5+ , which indicated that the present probe has the potential to be used as a turn-on optical sensor for selective detection of As 5+ with fewer experimental limitations. The detection limit was found to be 26 nM. Inspired by its good emissive properties, the ensemble was further explored for imaging As 5+ in live cells. Because of its long-range emissive nature, no autofluorescence from the cellular species was observed during the imaging process. The probe was evaluated to be non-toxic and successfully permeated the cell membrane without the help of any permeabilizing agent to image As 5+ . We demonstrate a strategy for the recognition of As 5+ in aqueous solution using a red-emissive probe based on a perylene-Cu 2+ ensemble decorated with peripheral free carboxyl functionality.