A highly selective and sensitive coumarin-based chemosensor for recognition of Al3+ and the continuous identification of Fe3+ in water-bearing system and biomaging & biosensing in Zebrafish

A simple, fast responsive fluorescent chemical sensor for 3-aldehyde-4-hydroxyphenylpropylpyran-2-keto-4-hydroxybenzoyl (JT) was designed and synthesized, which was characterized by 1H NMR and MS. The fluorescent chemical sensor JT showed outstanding selectivity and high sensitivity for identifying Al3+ and the limit of detection (LOD) was 9.76 × 10−8 M in EtOH/H2O (9:1, v/v) system. Furthermore, the in situ generated [JT + Al3+] system was used for the relay detection of Fe3+ without separation and purification, and the experimental results showed a new fluorescence quenching signal under the same conditions and the LOD to Fe3+ was 5.21 × 10−7 M. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to obtain optimized structures and orbital energy for the chemical sensor JT, [JT + Al3+] and [JT + Fe3+] complexes. Moreover, the test strips experiments were given for rapid detection of Al3+ and continuous monitoring of Fe3+. Ultimately, it is worth mentioning that we have successfully achieved the recognition of Al3+ and relay identification Fe3+ by the sensor using zebrafish as a biological carrier, which indicate the sensor own excellent practical application prospect.