Design, synthesis and fluorescence behavior of novel chemosensor with a thieno[2,3-b]thiophene fluorophore

A novel fluorescent chemosensor, a thieno[2,3-b]thiophene derivative carrying two oxazoline groups (DTTO) was designed and synthesized, which was discovered to exhibit good selectivity to dichromate anions (Cr2O72−). We also found that if the oxazoline group was replaced with a chiral one, for example, (S)-DTTO acted as a chiral fluorescent chemosensor, which exhibited a distinguishing fluorescent response to the enantiomers of mandelic acid.