Coumarin-Benzothiazole Hydrazone for Probing of Latent Fingerprints and Anti-Counterfeiting Applications

In this work, we utilized a simple condensation process for the effective synthesis of coumarin hydrazone fluorescent tag (CHFT) and the evidence for the formation of CHFT was given through FT-IR, H-1-NMR, HRMS, UV-Vis and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Quantum chemical parameters and molecular electrostatic potential were assessed using DFT investigations. CHFT was found to be aggregation induced emission (AIE) active and exhibited strong cyan blue emission with large stokes shift. The optical band gap (Eg) value was determined by Kubelka-Munk theory. The latent fingerprints (LFPs) developed by synthesized coumarin, exhibited excellent sensitivity, selectivity and low background hindrance on various material surfaces. Further, the synthesised CHFT was employed in anti-counterfeiting applications.