A novel quinoline based receptor that shows monomer emission quenching followed by intramolecular excimer emission upon hydrogen bond mediated complexation of tartaric acid has been designed and synthesized. The excimer emission has been used to confirm the selective recognition of tartaric acid over its nonhydroxy analogue, succinic acid. Binding ability was studied by 1H NMR, UV–vis and fluorescence spectroscopic methods.
