FRET based tri-color emissive rhodamine–pyrene conjugate as an Al3+ selective colorimetric and fluorescence sensor for living cell imaging

A rhodamine-pyrene hybrid molecule acts as a colorimetric and fluorimetric sensor for Al(3+) through time dependent PET-CHEF and FRET processes associated with tri-color emission. Intracellular Al(3+) has been visualized through time dependent blue-green-red emission. The lowest limit of detection for Al(3+) is 0.02 μM.