Coumarin-decorated Schiff base hydrolysis as an efficient driving force for the fluorescence detection of water in organic solvents

A coumarin based Schiff base was found to be an excellent indicator of moisture, via rapid in situ hydrolysis. A structure-relationship examination of a small library of Schiff bases revealed the critical importance of hydrogen bond acceptors in close proximity to the imine bond, and this observation was further supported by theoretical calculations as well as the solid state structure analysis. The most sensitive compound demonstrated a limit of detection and quantification of 0.18% and 0.54% v/v water in DMSO, respectively.