Ultrafast response fluorescent probe with red-emission for monitoring hydrogen sulfide in vivo and in vitro

Abstract

Abstract A NIR fluorescent probe AZ-NO2 for hydrogen sulfide was designed and synthesized through simple method, which employs dicyanoisophorone based fluorescent dye as a fluorophore and 2,4-dinitrophenyl ether moiety as the specific reaction site. Owing to the H2S-induced efficient thiolysis of dinitrophenyl ether, the probe displayed excellent selectivity toward H2S, a low detection limit of 16.3\u202fnM, a large Stokes shift (185\u202fnm) and an ultrafast response time (75\u202fs). In addition, the sensing mechanism was investigated via mass spectra. Finally, in view of its favourable biocompatibility, the probe AZ-NO2 has been successfully applied to the fluorescent bioimaging of H2S in HepG2 cells and zebrafish.