Di-amido-derivatives of 1,1 0 -methylene-bis(2-naphthol) (mbn), viz.; L 1 to L 6 and L 7 , have been synthesized and characterized. The single crystal X-ray structure of L 2 has been established. All these derivatives have been studied for metal ion recognition by fluorescence and absorption techniques. Among these, L 6 and L 7 were found to be selective towards Cu 2+ even in the presence of other metal ions in aqueous acetonitrile owing to the presence of the N,O-binding core up to the lowest concentration of 210 AE 11 and 144 AE 3 ppb, respectively. The binding region has been identified by 1 H NMR studies. The proposed mode of binding has been modelled by DFT computations. w Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Characterization data, Single crystal XRD structure of L 2 , fluorescence titration studies with metal ions, control fluorescence titration studies, minimum detection limit experiment, absorption titration studies, Job's plots, mass spectral studies of L 6 and L 7 with Cu 2+ , competitive metal ion titrations, 1 H-NMR titration studies, computational studies. CCDC reference number 862498. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see