A Chalcone Based Novel Fluorescent Nanoprobe for Selective Detection of Al 3+ Ion in Aqueous Medium

Abstract A chalcone based novel fluorescent organic nanoparticles are prepared by reprecipitation method. The Dynamic Light Scattering histogram shows narrow particle size distribution and the average diameter of particle is 37.2 nm. The Scanning Electron Microphotograph shows the fibre like morphology. The blue shifted UV-visible spectra. The significant large Stokes shift of Trans-3-(9-Anthryl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one nanoparticles (APPONPs) in aqueous suspension as compared with that of a dilute solution of Trans-3-(9-Anthryl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one (APPO) in acetone indicates H-aggregation of molecules by π-π stacking. An intense fluorescence band peaking at 556 nm is attributed to Aggregation Induced Enhanced Emission (AIEE) by direct excitation of APPONPs. The binding of Al 3+ increased the fluorescence of APPONPs while other cations actually decreases the fluorescence. The fluorescence enhancement of APPONPs by Al 3+ was discussed on the basis of hard and soft acid and base (HSAB) theory. The enhancement of APPONPs emission is linear in the concentration range 0-80 μM of Al 3+ . The enhancement of fluorescence of APPONPs results obeys the straight line equation with RSD = 0.9879%. The present method has Limit of Detection (LOD)= 1.148 μM of Al 3+ which is lower than the LOD reported for Al 3+ by using other methods like colorimetry, potentiometry. This study was succesfully applied to develop fluorimetric method for determination of Al 3+ in environmental samples. The method affords fairly practical and economical approach