Methylmercury (CHHg) is the common form of organic mercury and is more toxic than its inorganic or elemental forms. Mercury is emanated in the course of various natural events and human activities and converts to methylmercury by anaerobic organisms. CHHg are ingested by fish and subsequently bioaccumulated in their tissue and, eventually, enter the human diet, causing serious health issues. Therefore, selective and sensitive detection of bioaccumulated CHHg in fish samples is essential. Herein, the development of a simple, highly sensitive and selective aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-based turn-on probe for both inorganic mercury ions and organicmercury species is reported. The probe's function is based on mercury ion-promoted transmetalation reaction of aryl boronic acid. The probe, a tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-monoboronic acid (1), was successfully utilized for AIE-based fluorescence imaging study on methylmercury-contaminated live cells and zebrafish for the first time. Both Hg(II) and CHHg ensued a fast transmetalation of TPE-boronic acid causing drastic reduction in the solubility of the resulting product (TPE-HgCl/TPE-HgMe) in the working solvent system. At the dispersed phase, the aggregated form of TPE-mercury ions recovers planarity because of restricted rotational freedom promoting aggregation-induced emission. Simple design, cost-effective synthesis, high selectivity, inexpensive instrumentation, fast signal transduction, and low limit of detection (0.12 ppm) are some of the key merits of this analytical tool.

A novel AIE-based fluorescent probe for the detection of trace amounts of nitrite and nitrate ions in water has been developed, which spontaneously detects nitrites (or nitrates) by a fluorescence “turn-off” method.

Herein, a sensitive fluorimetric assay for dissolved carbon dioxide (dCO2) was developed by using ion-induced self-assembly of a tetraphenylethylene derivative by taking advantage of its aggregation induced emission property. Chitosan, a commercially available polymer having amine functionality was utilized for the ion induced assay. In the presence of dCO2, the amine groups in the chitosan get protonated to convert neutral chitosan to a positively charged species, triggering negatively charged tetraphenylethene derivative (probe 1) to aggregate with it by electrostatic interaction. The aggregation causes intense blue fluorescence output from the system. The extent of the aggregation is reliant on the charge density of polymer, which is equivalent to dCO2 concentration. A linear relationship from 5 to 50 μM of dCO2, with a limit of detection of 5 × 10(-6) M (0.00127 hPa) was obtained. This is the first report for detecting dCO2 utilizing the AIE property.

An aggregation-induced emission (AIE) based “turn-on” fluorescent chemodosimeter for selective detection of Pb2+ ions has been developed. The probe is a phosphate functionalized tetraphenylethylene derivative and the resulting lead–TPE complex has very low solubility in working solvent and triggers AIE and shows a low detection limit of 10 ppb.

An aggregation-induced emission (AIE) based ''turn-on'' fluorescent chemodosimeter for the selective detection of ascorbate ions has been developed, making use of the azide-alkyne ''click'' reaction between two tetraphenylethene (TPE) derivatives (propergyl-TPE and TPE-azide). The present method offers a rapid, economic and effective way to detect ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in aqueous media with high selectivity and sensitivity.

An efficient, catalyst free mechanochemical route to 2-aryl benzothiazoles and both 2- and 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles has been developed via a simple mortar–pestle grinding method.

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A highly sensitive ESIPT based fluorescent chemodosimeter (LOD 3.3 ppb) has been synthesized using “green” chemical route and employed to detect thiophenol in environmental samples and living cells.