A Naphthalimide-Based Fluorescence “Off-on-Off” Chemosensor for Relay Detection of Al(3+) and ClO(−)

A novel Al(3+) chemosensor NPA was designed and synthesized on basis of the mechanism of ICT and CHEF. Upon addition of Al(3+), the probe NPA displayed a bright green fluorescence under UV radiation and visual color change from yellow to colorless. Spectrum titrations showed that NPA could be recognized as a fluorescent turn-on probe with 10(−8) M detection level. The probe was successfully applied in real water sample and test paper. More important, NPA-Al(3+) complex were used as a fluorescent turn-off probe for the detection of ClO(−) with the detection as low as 2.34 × 10(−8) M. The performance of NPA to Al(3+) and NPA-Al(3+) complex to ClO(−) demonstrated that NPA could be served as a sensitive probe and exhibit INHIBIT logic gate behavior with Al(3+) and ClO(−) as inputs.