A new naphthalene derivative receptor (L) was synthesized and characterized with common spectroscopic methods. L exhibited a strong fluorescence enhancement in the presence of trace amounts of Pb2+, attributable to photoinduced electron transfer (PET) effect, which also displayed high selectivity over a series of other metal cations (Na+, K+, Cs+, Mg2+, Ba2+, Cr3+, Mn2+, Fe3+, Fe2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Hg2+ and Ag+) in acetonitrile/H2O (9:1, v/v) mixture. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.