A novel turn-on fluorescence sensor based on the Nd (III) complex for the ultrasensitive detection of 6-mercaptopurine

6-mercaptopurine (6MP) is a chemotherapeutic drug widely used for treating inflammatory bowel diseases and several cancers. Nevertheless, determining and monitoring its concentration in the human body is highly important because over or under-doses of 6MP can lead to critical health issues. In this paper, we have developed a turn-on fluorescent probe for the determination of the anticancer drug 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) based on coordination complex [Nd (Anth)3 (H2O)3]. [Nd (Anth)3 (H2O)3] has been synthesized through a simple precipitation process taking the stoichiometric ratio of Nd (III) nitrate hexahydrate and 2-aminobenzoic acid (2ABA), commonly known as anthranilic acid (Anth). The synthesis and structure have been investigated and validated by different characterizations like UV-visible spectroscopy, FT-IR, HRMS, XPS, and SEM. The synthesized complex displayed excellent fluorescence properties, and the fluorescence intensity was enhanced with the addition of 6MP in the form of a [Fe (6MP)3]2+ mixed complex (Fe-6MP), which is formed by dissolving it in FeCl3. The fabricated sensors displayed the best linear response in a wide range of concentrations from 2.55 mu M to 45.51 mu M of 6MP. The lower limit of detection (LOD) of the developed sensor was found to be 0.26 mu M with a linear correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.99. The synthesized probe gives an acceptable response for the sensing of 6MP in the presence of several interfering agents.