A coumarin-derived fluorescent chemosensor for selectively detecting Cu2+: Synthesis, DFT calculations and cell imaging applications

•The novel coumarin-derived chemosensor L is simple to synthesize.•The structure of the chemosensor L was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction.•The chemosensor L can be used to determine Cu2+ ion with high selectivity can be used for imaging the Cu2+ ion in cells.•The fluorescence turn on–off mechanism and coordination mode were studied by DFT calculations.

A novel coumarin-based fluorescent probe L ((4E)-4-((7-hydroxy-4-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-8-yl) methyleneamino)-1,2-dihyydro-2,3-dimethyl-1-phenylpyrazol-5-one) has been developed as a simple and efficient chemosensor which exhibits a significant fluorescence reduction in the presence of metal cations. This sensor exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity toward Cu2+ over other common cations. The mechanism for detecting copper was evaluated by time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations and the coordination mode was also confirmed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Furthermore, results of cell imaging in this study indicate that this new probe may be useful for detection and monitoring of Cu2+ in biological applications.

Graphical abstractChemosensor L was reported as a fluorescence probe for Cu2+, it exhibited high selectivity and sensitivity toward Cu2+ over other co-existed cations. Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide