A new benzothiazole-based chemosensor BTN (1-((Z)-(((E)-3-methylbenzo[d]thiazol-2(3H)-ylidene)hydrazono)methyl)naphthalen-2-ol) was synthesized for the detection of Cu2+. BTN could detect Cu2+ with “off-on” fluorescent response from colorless to yellow irrespective of presence of other cations. Limit of detection for Cu2+ was determined to be 3.3 µM. Binding ratio of BTN and Cu2+ turned out to be a 1:1 with the analysis of Job plot and ESI-MS. Sensing feature of Cu2+ by BTN was explained with theoretical calculations, which might be owing to internal charge transfer and chelation-enhanced fluorescence processes.

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