A naphthalene benzimidazole-based chemosensor for the colorimetric and on-off fluorescent detection of fluoride ion

A novel naphthalene benzimidazole (NBI)-based chemosensor (D2) was developed for fluoride ion (F-) detection. The absorption spectrum of D2 changed dramatically from yellow to blue in the visible region accompanied with a 225 nm red shift of its absorption maximum upon the addition of F- in DMSO. D2 also exhibited a fluorescence turn-off response towards the fluoride ion. The emission intensity of D2 decreased drastically along the increasing F- concentration and the detection limit for F- was as low as 3.2 x 10(-9) mol/L. H-1 NMR and HRMS-ESI results indicated that the formation of NBI-O- through the desilylation reaction of F- with NBI-OSi was responsible for the spectral changes. Overall, this kind of NBI-type molecules represent a new type chemosensor for the spectral detection of fluoride ion in solution. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.