Synthesis of blue fluorescent molybdenum nanoclusters with novel terephthaldehyde-cysteine Schiff base for detection of pyrophosphate

[Display omitted] •TPA-Cys-MoNCs acted as a nanosensor for the detection of pyrophosphate.•Excitation and emission peaks of TPA-Cys-MoNCs were observed at 340 and 455 nm.•TAP-Cys-MoNCs exhibited high selectivity towards pyrophosphate.•The developed probe exhibited limit of detection of 0.9 nM.•The developed method was successfully applied to detect pyrophosphate in biofluids. In this work, terephthaldehyde-cysteine-molybdenum nanoclusters (TPA-Cys-MoNCs) were synthesized by using terephthaldehyde-cysteine (TPA-Cys) Schiff base as a novel ligand. The as-synthesized TPA-Cys-MoNCs showed blue fluorescence under UV lamp at 365 nm, displaying emission peak at 455 nm when excited at 340 nm. The fluorescent TPA-Cys-MoNCs are used as a probe for sensitive assay of pyrophosphate (PPi) via fluorescence quenching mechanism. The emission peak intensity of TPA-Cys-MoNCs at 455 nm exhibited a linear quenching with increasing amount of PPi. As a result, quantitative assay was developed for the detection of PPi (0.01–200 µM) with the detection limit of 0.9 nM. The developed probe was successfully demonstrated for the detection of PPi in biofluids (urine and plasma).