Experimental and theoretical study of novel aminobenzamide-aminonaphthalimide fluorescent dyads with a FRET mechanism

In this work, both experimental and theoretical methods were used to study the photophysical and metal ion binding properties of a series of new aminobenzamide-aminonaphthalimide (2ABZ-ANAPIM) fluorescent dyads. The 2-aminobenzamide (2ABZ) and 6-aminonaphthalimide (ANAPIM) fluorophores were linked through alkyl chains (C₂ to C₆) to obtain four fluorescent dyads. These dyads present a highly efficient (0.61 to 0.98) Förster Resonant Energy Transfer (FRET) from the 2ABZ to the ANAPIM due to the 2ABZ emission and ANAPIM excitation band overlap and the configurational stacking of both aromatic systems which allows the energy transfer. These dyads interact with Cu²⁺ and Hg²⁺ metal ions in solution inhibiting the FRET mechanism by the cooperative coordination of both 2ABZ and ANAPIM moieties. Both experimental and theoretical results are consistent and describe clearly the photophysical and coordination properties of these new dyads.