Development of a coumarin-furan conjugate as Zn 2+ ratiometric fluorescent probe in ethanol-water system.

In this study, a novel coumarin-derived compound bearing the furan moiety called 7-diethylamino-3-formylcoumarin (2'-furan formyl) hydrazone (1) has been designed, synthesized and evaluated as a Zn2+ ratiometric fluorescent probe in ethanol-water system. This probe 1 showed good selectivity and high sensitivity towards Zn2+ over other metal ions investigated, and a decrease in fluorescence emission intensity at 511nm accompanied by an enhancement in fluorescence emission intensity at 520nm of this probe 1 was observed in the presence of Zn2+ in ethanol-water (V : V=9 : 1) solution, which provided ratiometric fluorescence detection of Zn2+ . Additionally, the ratiometric fluorescence response of 1 to Zn2+ was nearly completed within 0.5min, which suggested that this probe 1 could be utilized for sensing and monitoring Zn2+ in environmental and biological systems for real-time detection.