A novel Ag+ cation sensor based on polyamidoamine dendrimer modified with 1,8-naphthalimide derivatives

• Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer has been synthesized and modified with 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide.
• The effect of different cations on the fluorescence intensity has been reported.
• The results have shown that the synthesized compound could be a reliable sensor for Ag+ cations.

In this study, 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide-conjugated polyamidoamine dendrimer was synthesized and characterized and its potentiality as a cation sensor was investigated. 4-Amino-1,8-naphthalic anhydride reacted with polyamidoamine dendrimer and the product was characterized using FTIR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and melting point analysis method. The synthesized compound was applied to detect various cations in water media and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) via monitoring the quenching of the fluorescence intensity. Furthermore, various metal cations including Cu2 +, Ni2 +, Zn2 +, Pb2 +,Ca2 +, Ba2 +, Cd2 +, Hg2 +, Fe2 +, Fe3 + and Ag+ were tested. The complexes formed between the synthesized compound and metal cations in solution and their effects on Photoinduced Electron Transfer (PET) process were investigated regarding the potential application of the newly-synthesized dendrimer as a colorimetric and fluorescent sensor for such cations. The results clearly confirmed that the 1,8-naphthalimide groups surrounding the central dendrimer core showed strong green fluorescence emission at 553 nm. This effect considerably decreased with the introduction of all cations, except Ag+ where the fluorescence quenching effect was remarkable and more dominant. Therefore, it can be concluded that the synthesized dye has the potentiality of being a highly sensitive and selective fluorescence sensor for Ag+ cation.

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