Molecular engineered silica surfaces with an assembled anthracene monolayer as a fluorescent sensor for organic copper(II) salts

A novel fluorescence film has been fabricated by covalently coupling anthracene on a glass plate surface via a long flexible “Y” type spacer. Fluorescence measurement demonstrated that the emission of the film is dominated by anthracene monomer emission, and the emission can be selectively quenched by organic copper(II) salts including copper acetate, copper citrate, copper tartrate, etc. Addition of inorganic copper(II) salts like Cu(NO3)2, CuSO4, CuCl2, etc., however, has little effect upon the emission of the film. This observation was explained by considering the screening effect of the spacer layer, or spacer clusters, or even spacers adopting compact coiled conformation. Different from the reported fluorescence films with similar structures, immobilization of anthracene via a “Y” type spacer on a glass plate surface makes the fluorophore moieties exist in two different states, that is some of them were embedded within the spacer structures, and some of them might stay out of the structures. This hypothesis has been confirmed by model system, solvent effect and quenching mechanism studies. The emission of the film is sensitive to the presence of organic copper(II) salts like copper acetate. The response of the film to copper acetate is fully reversible. Presence of other inorganic salts, including Pb(Ac)2, Cd(Ac)2, Zn(Ac)2, and inorganic copper(II) salts has little effect upon the sensing performance of the film to copper acetate.