Reversible Absorption and Emission Responses of Nile Blue and Azure A Derivatives in Extreme Acidic and Basic Conditions

Oxazinium derivatives have recently played an important role in bioanalysis attributing to the distinguished properties, thus a detailed study of the structure-property relationship is especially significant. Herein, pH-sensitive optical properties of Nile Blue ( 1a ), N -monoalkyl-Nile Blue ( 1b ) and Azure A ( 1c ) have been carried out in extreme acid and base conditions. Dyes 1a and 1c showed colorimetric changes by the protonation of nitrogen atom in strong acidic condition (pH 7.6). Besides, their fluorescent properties were closed to ON − OFF and OFF − ON emissions at 640–820 nm under strong acidic and basic conditions. Moreover, the absorption and emission properties were reversible, and there were no remarkable optical intensity changes of dyes 1a − c under subacidic and neutral solutions (pH = 3.0–7.0). The (TD) DFT calculations were used to optimize the most stable structures of their corresponding protonated and deprotonated forms, and their absorption and emission properties were also explained. Their fluorescent properties nearly ON-OFF and OFF − ON in strong acidic and basic conditions at near-infrared region will give the possible application in pH detection for extreme conditions. Graphical abstract ᅟ