Synthesis,characterization and applications of schiff base chemosensor for determination of Cu2+ ions

A novel thiazole-based Schiffbase chemosensor SB1 with N- and O- donor atoms was synthesized and characterized by different techniques (UV–vis, ¹³C NMR, ¹H NMR, and FT-IR analysis). The chemosensor SB1 was used for the determination of Cu²⁺ ions in various samples. The significant spectral changes in absorption spectra of chemosensor SB1 at 220 and 416 nm and the color change from light yellow to yellowish-brown indicate high selectivity and sensitivity towards Cu²⁺ ions as compared to other cations (Na⁺, K⁺, Ag⁺, Zn²⁺, Ni²⁺, Pb²⁺, Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Co²⁺, Cd²⁺, Sn²⁺, Hg²⁺, Cr³⁺, Fe^3+, and Al³⁺). The sensing mechanism of SB1 was investigated through various techniques such as FT-IR, UV–vis and ¹H NMR titration experiment and further confirmed by DFT computational studies. The 2:1 binding mode between SB1 and Cu²⁺ ions was confirmed by Job‘s plot using UV–vis spectrophotometry. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were found to be 0.015 and 0.0471 µg mL^?1, respectively. The percent recovery of Cu²⁺ from various environmental samples was found to be 95.00–103.33% at various levels. These obtained results demonstrate that chemosensor SB1 is a cost-effective, facile, selective, sensitive, and colorimetric sensing platform to detect trace amounts of Cu²⁺ ions in variousenvironmental and agricultural samples.