Design and synthesis of rhodamine based chemosensors for the detection of Fe3+ ions

Abstract The number and nature of coordinating entities as well as the size of chelating cavity in rhodamine based chemosensors were tuned to enhance the selectivity and sensitivity for Fe 3+ ions. An intense pink color development and enhancement in fluorescence emission intensity of chemosensor 5 upon complex formation at pH 7·4 enabled the detection of Fe 3+ ions in the presence of other competitive metal ions like Li + , Na + , K + , Cs + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , Sr 2+ , Cr 3+ , Mn 2+ , Fe 2+ , Cu 2+ , Co 2+ , Ni 2+ , Zn 2+ , Cd 2+ , Hg 2+ , and Pb 2+ . A plausible application of chemosensor 5 in the imaging of live fibroblast cells exposed to Fe 3+ ions is also demonstrated.