A novel 1, 10-phenanthroline based Schiff base, 3-(((1,10-phenanthrolin-5-yl)imino)methyl)benzene-1,2-diol (H2L) receptor has been designed, synthesized and characterized using standard spectroscopic methods (FT-IR, 1H NMR and UV-Vis) Fig.1. Zn(II) complex of the receptor was also synthesized by 1:1 reaction of H2L with ZnCl2 in absolute ethanol. The H2L and its Zn(II) complex were applied as multi-ion responsive scaffolds for the sensing of both anions and cations via chromogenic methods in DMSO:H2O (9:1) media. H2L was displayed excellent selectivity for CNˉ ion over other anions such as Fˉ, Clˉ, Brˉ, Iˉ, H2PO4ˉ, OACˉ , N3ˉ , N02ˉ , IO3ˉ and HSO4ˉ
