摘要

A near-infrared heptamethine indocyanine probe was successfully synthesized and demonstrated to be a colorimetric and fluorescent probe for F- with high selectivity and sensitivity. In the presence of F-, the probe shows a new prominent absorption peak at 942 nm, accompanied by a remarkable solution color change from pale red to colorless in a few seconds, which provides a way for the 'naked-eye' detection of fluoride anions. These responses were attributed to the deprotonation of the -NH fragment of an indolyl unit, and the H-1 NMR study and density functional theory (DFT) calculations are in agreement with them. Moreover, the probe can be employed to detect F- quantitatively within a certain concentration range, and the limit of detection could be as low as 1.3 mu M.