Tetraphenylethylene Based Fluorescent Chemosensor for the Selective Detection of Explosive Nitroaromatic Compounds

Herein, we have reported a tetraphenylethylene (TPE) based fluorescent chemosensor 4,4 ',4 '',4 '''-(ethene-1,1,2,2-tetrayl)tetrakis(N,N-dimethylaniline) (TPE-DMA) for the selective detection of explosive nitroaromatic compounds (NACs), such as 2, 4, 6-trinitrophenol also called as picric acid (PA), 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), and p-nitrophenol (NP) over other NACs in CHCl3. TPE-DMA is highly selective and sensitive toward PA in presence of various metal ions and anions. The quenching efficiency can be calculated from the Stern-Volmer equation and was found to be 4.02x10(4) M-1, 1.82x10(4) M(-1)and 3.12x10(4) M-1 respectively for PA, DNP and NP. The detection limit of TPE-DMA towards PA, DNP and NP of about 4.088x10(-6) M, 5.155x10(-6) M and 3.989x10(-6) M respectively. Furthermore, to study the practical applicability of TPE-DMA, visual-eye detection was performed not only in solid-state on TLC plates but also in solution state in CHCl3 under visible light as well as UV light illumination.