Development of Functional Phthalocyanine-Based Associate towards an Effective Fluorimetric Detection of Hg(II)

In acidic media, cationic phthalocyanine Alcian blue 8GX, has an efficient fluorescence quenching effect on anionic phthalocyanine tetrasulphoaluminium phthalocyanines (AlS(4)Pc), forming an almost non-fluorescent associate. Based on this discovery, a red-emitting fluorescent probe consisted of AlS(4)P(C) and Alcian blue 8GX has been developed through molecular assembly. Further studies indicated that the presence of Hg(II) ion has a significant fluorescence recovery effect of the probe. Notably, only Hg(II) can significantly restore the fluorescence of AlS(4)Pc-Alcian blue 8GX system which was revealed from the screening experiments of common metal ions, which confirmed that the fluorescence recovery by other metal ions is very weak or even unrestored, showing high specificity and sensitivity AlS(4)Pc-Alcian blue 8GX to Hg(II). Thus, a new fluorimetry for Hg(II) with high specificity and high sensitivity in a wide concentration range has been established using AlS(4)P(c)-Alcian blue 8GX associate as a red-emitting fluorescent probe. It is more noteworthy that this study opens a new way for development and application of functional phthalocyanine based red-emitting fluorescent probes.