Synthesis and application of highly sensitive fluorescent probe for Hg2+ regulated by sulfur

Rhodamine-based fluorescent probe is widely used in chemical analysis, environmental analysis and life sciences area due to their excellent optical properties. Based on the thiophilic property of Hg2+, using C =S structural motif as the core segment, our group have designed and synthesized three novel probes containing cinnamyl aldehyde with different substituents, exhibiting high selectivity and excellent sensitivity. The structure-property relationships of these probes have been investigated that the optical change caused by electron withdrawing effect and heavy atom effect. Furthermore, these Hg2+. probes could be applied in living mice imaging, which provide a promising tool for quantitative mercury (II) ion imaging in living organism. (C) 2017 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.