Merocyanine dye-based specific sensing cyanide anions in aqueous medium

The (E)-2-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)-3-(5-(4-(diphenylamino) phenyl) thiophen-2-yl) acrylonitrile TP1 dye has been investigated as new fluorescent chemosensor for cyanide anions. The dye TP1 acted as strong turn on fluorescent sensor after addition of the cyanide anions. Upon addition of cyanide anions to dye TP1 solution induced a change in the solution color from red to green color under the naked-eye detection. While no color change could be observed in presence of other common-anions. The detection limit of dye TP1 for cyanide anions was found to be 4.24 × 10 −8 M. Graphic abstract