ABSTRACT
Comparatively less fluorescent imidazoles containing –NH ring can efficiently sense F– ion in a polar medium like acetonitrile. Photophysics can establish the interaction of tetra-n-butylammonium fluoride with two different benzimidazoles via stable isosbestic and isoemissive formation. Molecular level fluoride sensors can broadly be classified into four types: molecules capable of sensing anions through hydrogen bonding interactions containing N–H, C–H, and O–H groups, anion–π interactions, Lewis acid-base interactions, and anion induced chemical reactions. Acetonitrile used as a solvent was of the high performance liquid chromatography grade. All of the tetrabutyl amonium salts were purchased from Aldrich. The absorption ultraviolet-visible spectral measurements were performed with a Shimadzu UV 1800 spectrophotometer fitted with an electronic temperature controller unit. The chapter concludes that organic heterocycles containing the –NH protons are very much likely to interact with the F– salt and hence can be promising as colorimetric sensors.
