Progress in Fluorescence Sensors for Detection of Thiols

Sulfhydryl compounds, such as cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy), glutathione (GSH) and so on, play an important role in the normal human physiological processes. Molecular fluorescent probes have attracted much attention of scholar in the detection of sulfhydryl compounds, since it has the advantage of good selectivity, high sensitivity, good biocompatibility and real-time in situ monitoring. At present, the design of thiol-based fluorescent probes is mainly based on the strong nucleophilicity of sulfhydryl groups. In this paper, the synthesis of fluorescent probes for detecting sulfhydryl compounds, which was reported from 2013 to 2018, is reviewed based on the different mechanism of the reaction between fluorescence probe and sulfhydryl, including Michael addition, cyclization of aldehyde groups, sulfonamides or sulfonates of the lysis, natural chemical linkage and so on. The detection limit of the probe, response time, equivalence ratio were elaborated.