A new pyrenyl-appended triazole for fluorescent recognition of Hg2+ ion in aqueous solution

•A new pyrenyl-appended triazole-based fluorescent sensor for Hg2+ was prepared.•This chemosensor shows distinctive fluorescent quenching selectivity toward Hg2+ in the acetonitrile aqueous solution.•1H NMR analysis and DFT calculations revealed the binding mechanism.

A new pyrenyl-appended triazole for fluorescent sensing of Hg2+, 1, has been synthesized and characterized. Upon addition of Hg2+ to 1 in the acetonitrile aqueous solution, more than 80% of the initial fluorescence intensity of 1 was quenched, which allowed a selective and sensitive fluorescent detection of Hg(II) without any interference from other metal ions. 1H NMR analysis revealed that the two sulfonamide and triazole groups of 1 played a critical role in the interactions with Hg2+ ion, which can be further proved by the density functional theory based theoretical calculation.

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