A novel turn-on fluorescent sensor was designed for cadmium detection and synthesized by the condensation reaction of a prepared dialdehyde with diethylenetriamine, and characterized by FT-IR, UV–visible, 1 HNMR, Mass spectra, and elemental analyses. According to the fluorescent findings, an approximately 3-fold enhancement of the emission intensity of L toward Cd 2+ Antioxidant Fluorescent ligand DFT make significant changes (LOD=2.7× 10 the band gap (E 9 ions was observed at 430 nm, while 18 other metal ions did not M). DFT calculations confirmed the experimental results. Lowering g ) and increasing the electrophilicity index ( ω ) indicated that charge transfer is responsible for the enhancement of emission intensity of L when binding to Cd 2+ . The sensor (L) and its complexes exhibited significant antioxidant potency. Furthermore, [CdL] demonstrated much more extensive antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli, among other evaluated compounds.
