One-step green synthetic approach for the preparation of multicolor emitting copper nanoclusters and their applications in chemical species sensing and bioimaging.

One-step green microwave synthetic approach was developed for the synthesis of copper nanoclusters (Cu NCs) and used as a fluorescent probe for the sensitive detection of thiram and paraquat in water and food samples. Unexpectedly, the prepared Cu NCs exhibited strong orange fluorescence and showed emission peak at 600 nm, respectively. Under optimized conditions, the quenching of Cu NCs emission peak at 600 nm was linearly proportional to thiram and paraquat concentrations in the ranges from 0.5 to 1000 µM, and from 0.2 to 1000 µM, with detection limits of 70 nM and 49 nM, respectively. In addition, bioimaging studies against Bacillus subtilis through confocal fluorescence microscopy indicated that Cu NCs showed strong blue and green fluorescence signals, good permeability and minimum toxicity against the various bacteria species, which demonstrates their potential feasibility for chemical species sensing and bioimaging applications.

Synthesis and antiproliferative activity of novel α-aminophosphonates.

A novel series of carbazole-based α-aminophosphonates were synthesized by three component coupling of 6-bromo-9-ethyl-9H-carbazole-3-carbaldehyde, amine and diethyl phosphite using polyethylene glycol (PEG-400) as a green reaction media. The antiproliferative activity of these molecules was evaluated against three cancer cell lines. Of these, compounds 4c, 4e and 4m were found to exhibit good antiproliferative activity against three cancer cells, A549, MCF-7, and NCI-N87.