Pyrrole-quinazoline derivative as an easily accessible turn-off optical chemosensor for Cu and resultant Cu complex as a turn-on sensor for pyrophosphate in almost neat aqueous solution.

A simple chemosensor, 6-(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)-5,6-dihydro-benzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2-c]quinazoline (1), was synthesized via simple nucleophilic addition reaction coupled with Schiff base condensation. The probe 1 is aggregation-induced emission-active and could be used as an on-off fluorescence sensor toward Cu in HO/CHCN (99.5%, v/v) solution. Furthermore, the resultant Cu complex selectively responded to pyrophosphate (PPi) among various anions based on fluorescent on-off signal. In addition, the probe could be used for detecting Cu and PPi in HeLa cells.