A new ferrocene-anthracene dyad for dual-signaling sensing of Cu(II) and Hg(II)

A new anthracenyl-appended ferrocene bearing the aniline N and the thiourea S donors (1) for multiple signaling sensing of metal ions, has been synthesized and characterized. Upon addition of various metal ions in CH3CN solution, 1 shows a distinctive response to Cu2+ and Hg2+ over other metal ions, with a large enhancement of the emission of 1, and an anodic shift of electrochemical potential. In contrast, in CH3CN-Tris (1:1, v/v) buffer solution, 1 only shows a fluorescence turn-on response to Hg2+ over other metal ions, which can distinguish Hg2+ from Cu2+ and other metal ions. Furthermore, the supposed binding mode of 1 with Hg2+ and/or Cu2+ was also discussed according to the H-1 NMR titration and the theoretical calculation results by density functional theory (DFT) method. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.