A new highly selective, sensitive and NIR spectrophotometric probe based on A₂B₂-Type of unsymmetrical phthalocyanine for hazardous Be²⁺ recognition

Ozgur Yavuz, Mustafa Sezen, Yusuf Alcay, Mustafa Semih Yildirim, Hulya Aribuga, Emre Ozdemir, Utku Ertugral, Yilmaz Ozkilic, Nurcan Şenyurt Tuzun, Ismail Yilmaz

Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 284, 2023, 121484

The article published by Prof. Dr. Ismail Yilmaz and his research group in Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy in 2023 reports the synthesis of an A₂B₂-type unsymmetrical phthalocyanine molecule (O-A₂B₂ZnPc) with a near-infrared probe for the highly selective and ultrasensitive detection of hazardous Be²⁺ and the applications on the real samples. The sensing mechanism is based on J-aggregation induced by the ion-dipole interaction between Be²⁺ and oxygen atoms of crown ether units attached to the phthalocyanine molecule. This probe offers several advantages over other probes for Be²⁺ detection, including absorption and emission in the NIR region, rapid response time (1 s for UV–Vis and fluorescence), dual-channel and ratiometric sensing, and the best performance for LOD values (0.26 and 1.5 ppb for UV–Vis and fluorescence detection, respectively). This study also demonstrated the applicability of the probe in detecting different Be²⁺ concentrations in tap water samples with high recovery values. Additionally, the molecular spectral structure of probe was analyzed in detail by DFT calculations.