Design and synthesis of phenothiazine-based D-A molecules with ICT characteristics as efficient fluorescent probes for detecting hypochlorite in water.

Phenylthiazide compounds are frequently utilized to construct electron donor-acceptor (D-A) dyes, exhibiting excellent fluorescence and colorimetric analysis performance due to their electron-rich properties. Three D-A type compounds 5a-c, featuring intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) characteristics, were designed and synthesized using phenothiazine as the donor and various aryl-substituted imidazoles as acceptors for the detection of hypochlorite. Additionally, the ICT properties of the compounds can be fine-tuned by introducing various substituents to achieve a more sensitive optical response to HClO/ClO.