Fluorescent photoinduced electron transfer (PET) sensing of anions using charge neutral chemosensors

We demonstrate for the first time that the charge neutral anthracene based fluorescent sensors 1a-c, having an aromatic or aliphatic thiourea moiety as an anion receptor, show ideal PET sensor behaviour where the anthracene fluorescence emission is selectively quenched upon titration with AcO-, H2PO4- and F- but not by Cl- and Br- in DMSO.