FLUO-SPICES: natural aldehydes extraction and one-pot reaction to prepare and characterize new interesting fluorophores

Abstract A laboratory experiment for natural aldehyde extraction and successive synthesis of new fluorophores is proposed. Characterization of the extracted aldehydes by different techniques and photophysical study of the luminescent products allow the design of new fluorophores for possible down-shifting, microscopy, and electronics applications. The fluorophores are generated by an easy one-pot cyclization reaction in mild conditions without catalyst and with only water as byproduct, the obtained compounds are characterized by mass spectrometry, NMR, electronic absorption and emission spectroscopy.