Pt(II) Tetrafacial Barrel with Aggregation-Induced Emission for Sensing

A new tetraphenylpyrazine-based tetraimidazole ligand (L) was synthesized and used for subcomponent self-assembly with cis-(tmeda)-Pd-(NO3)(2) and cis-Pt-(PEt3)(2)(OTf)(2), leading to the formation of two tetrafacial barrels [Pd-8 L (4)(tmeda)(8)]-(NO3)(16) (1) and [Pt-8 L (4)(PEt3)(16)]-(OTf)(16) (2), respectively. Although ligand L is aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active, barrel 2 showed a magnificently higher AIE activity than ligand L, while 1 failed to retain the AIE properties of the ligand. Pd-(II) barrel 1, undergoing an aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) phenomenon, nullified the AIE activity of the ligand to be used in the photophysical application. The enhanced emission in the aggregated state of Pt-(II) barrel 2 was used for the recognition of picric acid (PA), which is explosive in nature and one of the groundwater contaminants in landmine areas. The recognition of picric acid was found to be selective in comparison with that of other nitroaromatic compounds (NACs), which could be attributed to ground-state complex formation and resonance energy transfer between picric acid and barrel 2. The use of new AIE-active assembly 2 for selective detection of PA with a low detection limit is noteworthy.