Rhodamine-Appended Benzophenone Probe for Trace Quantity Detection of Pd2+ in Living Cells

Designing a fluorogenic probe for the determination of Pd2+ is a challenging analytical task. Pd2+ is a potentially toxic and harmful substance even at a very low level of contamination in the end product. Herein, a promising spirolactam-functionalized chemosensor, rhodamine-appended benzophenone (HBR), is designed and characterized by spectroscopic (H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, ESI-MS, and FT-IR) data along with the single-crystal X-ray diffraction technique. It acts as a highly sensitive and selective fluorogenic chemosensor for Pd2+ ions over other environmentally relevant cations in aqueous ethanol (1:1, v/v) at pH 7.4. The limit of detection (LOD) is 34 nM that is far below the WHO recommended Pd uptake (47 mu M). The plausible mechanism involves the specific binding of HBR with Pe and the formation of 1:1 stoichiometry of the complex, which has been supported by ESI-MS, FT-IR data, Job plot, and association constant data (Benesi-Hildebrand plot). The computation study has been attempted to explain the ring cleavage fluorescence enhancement scheme of HBR upon binding with Pd2+. Furthermore, this "turn-on" probe has successfully applied to image the Pd2+ ion in cultured MDA-MB-231 cells.