Highly sensitive fluorescent imidazolium-based sensors for nanomolar detection of explosive picric acid in aqueous medium

Two novel fluorescent coumaryl linked imidazolium salts have been synthesized, characterized and found to be highly selective for nanomolar detection of commonly used explosive picric acid, over other aromatic explosives in aqueous medium. The compounds are highly photostable and are practically applicable for sensing picric acid in real environmental samples, in presence of interfering aromatic/non-aromatic explosives and metal ions. In solution, the high sensitivity of the sensors toward picric acid can be predominantly attributed to the ground-state charge-transfer complex formation based on UV-vis studies, time resolved fluorescence results and DFT calculations. (c) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.