Self-assembled quinoxaline derivative: Insight into disaggregation induced selective detection of nitro-aromatics in aqueous medium and live cell imaging

Advancement in fluorescent chemosensor for discriminative and precise detection of picric acid (PA) aqueous medium is highly desirable owing to its alarming impact on the natural environment via soil groundwater pollution. To this end, we have successfully fabricated a quinoxaline-based receptor (Probe 1) detect PA 100% medium. Probe 1 self-assembled form leaf-like structures pure water as micro aggregates (∼940 nm) transformed entirely into smaller spherical shape (∼354 upon addition PA. DFT analysis lifetime experiment validated that both PET FRET from electron-rich electron-deficient are concurrently responsible effective fluorescence quenching. The probe exhibited excellent selectivity towards (Ksv 22.6 × 106 M−1) with ∼56 ppb limit. Importantly, solution-coated paper strips was achieved at picogram level. Furthermore, evaluate practical usefulness, has been used actual samples. Interestingly, non-toxic cultured HeLa cells rendered intracellular through live cell imaging.