The effect of outer-sphere anions on the spectroscopic response of metal-binding chemosensors.

Ion pair receptors typically contain two separate binding sites, for the metal and the anion respectively. Here we report a less synthetically demanding approach, whereby we prepared a family of ion pair sensors based on a rhodamine fluorescent scaffold containing a tunable cation binding motif. When exposed to ion pairs, a competition for the metal ion is established between these ligands and anions.