A new, highly fluorescent terpyridine which responds to zinc ions with a large red-shift in emissionElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: details of synthetic details and characterisation and plots of: (i) the decrease in fluorescence as a function of pH for the two ligands L1 and L2, and (ii) the increase in the intensity of fluorescence of L1 at 620 nm as a function of added zinc, including the method used for determination of Kass. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b1/b108408a/

Abstract

A sequence of three metal-catalysed aryl coupling reactions leads to the new ligand 4′-(4-N,N-diphenylaminophenyl)-2,2′∶6′,2 ″-terpyridine, the intense ICT emission of which undergoes a large red-shift upon binding of zinc ions, providing a unique response over other common metal ions.