Development of fluorescent FeIII sensor based on chalcone

In this paper, 4-dimethylamino 2,5-dihydroxy chalcone (DMADHC), which exhibits excited state intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) characteristics, was synthesized and characterized. A sensitive optochemical sensor for Fe3+ ion was developed using DMADHC as fluorescence receptor. The fluorescence of DMADHC was gradually quenched with the addition of Fe3+ ion, which attributed to the formation of 1:1 complex between DMADHC and Fe3+ ion. The sensor exhibited excellent selectivity for Fe3+ ion over a large number of cation ions such as alkali, alkaline earth and transitional metal ions with a linear range of 3.984x10-7-1.135x10-5 and a limit of detection of 8.223x10-8 mol/L. On this basis, the sensor was preliminary applied to the determination of the content of iron ions in multi-vitamin tablet with satisfied results and the recoveries were in the 95-100% interval, and precision (n=5) was better than 5%. - Highlights: → A fluorescence receptor, 4-dimethylamino 2,5-dihydroxy chalcone was synthesis by one-step reaction. → Its intramolecular charge transfer fluorescence characteristics could be blocked by Fe3+ ion. → Based on this, an optochemical sensor for Fe3+ ion was developed. → Importantly, our proposed method is particularly useful for determination of Fe3+ ion in real sample.