Iron and copper are the most abundant and essential trace elements present in the human body and are playing a critical role in biochemical processes in living organisms. Hence, considerable efforts have been devoted to develop efficient and selective approach to detect of these metal ions. Meanwhile, developing molecular chemosensors including fluorescence and colorimetric, upon selective binding with heavy transition metal ions, has attracted many researchers due to the advantages such as simplicity, high sensitivity, selectivity, low cost, quick response and easy equipment. In this work, in the first part, the tridentate ligand H 2 dptz = N, N'-bis (2, 6- pyridine dicarboxamide) 2-aminothiazole has been prepared using tetrabutylammuniom bromide (TBAB) as an environmentally friendly reaction medium. New complex of this ligand, [Cu II (dptz) (bzlan)], has also been synthesized. The ligand and the synthesized complex have been characterized by UV-Vis, FT-IR and elemental analysis. The structure of the copper complex was determined by X-ray crystallography. The coordination geometry around the central metal ion in this complex is a distorted square pyramidal. In the second part, a new bidentate ligand, N-(9-antheracene carboxamide)-8-aminoquinoline (HAQ), and the tridentate ligand, N, N'- bis (2, 6-pyridine dicarboxamide) 2-aminobenzimidazole (H 2 dpIm), were synthesized in TBAB. The photo physical properties were studied by absorption and fluorescence spectra. The results show that the HAQ ligand can be used as an on-off fluorescent sensor for detection of Fe 3+ ion with high selectivity and sensitivity compared to other metal ions. Furthermore, the addition of Fe 3+ to the HAQ caused the color change from colorless to green in DMSO solution. This result shows that HAQ ligand also can be used as colorimetric sensor for detection of Fe 3+ . The optical behavior of H 2 dpIm ligand in the presence of different metal ions shows that this ligand can be used as colorimetric sensor for detection of Cu 2+ with high selectivity and sensitivity.
