A novel approach to study the structure-property relationships and applications in living systems of modular Cu2+ fluorescent probes

A series of Cu(2+) probe which contains 9 probes have been synthesized and established. All the probes were synthesized using Rhodamine B as the fluorophore, conjugated to various differently substituted cinnamyl aldehyde with C=N Schiff base structural motif as their core moiety. The structure-property relationships of these probes have been investigated. The change of optical properties, caused by different electronic effect and steric effect of the recognition group, has been analyzed systematically. DFT calculation simulation of the Ring-Close and Ring-Open form of all the probes have been employed to illuminate, summarize and confirm these correlations between optical properties and molecular structures. In addition, biological experiment demonstrated that all the probes have a high potential for both sensitive and selective detection, mapping of adsorbed Cu(2+) both in vivo and environmental microbial systems. This approach provides a significant strategy for studying structure-property relationships and guiding the synthesis of probes with various optical properties.