An Al3+ induced green luminescent fluorescent probe for cell imaging and naked eye detection

A novel pyrimidine based Al3+ selective fluorescent probe (L) has been synthesised by a facile one step coupling of 4,5-diamino pyrimidine with 2-hydroxy naphthaldehyde. L has been obtained in pure crystalline form without any column chromatographic purification. Upon binding Al3+, the single emission band of L undergoes red shift from 470 nm to dual emission peaks viz. 505 nm and 538 nm with appearance of a very intense green luminescence. L could detect as low as 2.9 × 10−7 M Al3+ with a binding constant value of 5.4 × 104 M−1. Al3+ contaminated cells became green in the presence of L making it suitable for intracellular Al3+ detection.