A new phenothiazine‐based fluorescence sensor for imaging Hg<sup>2+</sup> in living cells
Yucheng Sun, Lizhen Wang, Jianhua Zhou, Dawei Qin, Hongdong Duan
Abstract
A new phenothiazine‐based sensor PHE‐Ad for monitoring Hg 2+ has been designed and synthesized based on the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. The probes were characterized by FTIR, 1 H NMR, and HRMS, and their optical properties were detected by UV and FL. It's showed the probes detection of Hg 2+ compared to other metal ions (Mg 2+ , Cu 2+ , Hg 2+ , Ag + , Co 2+ , Cr 3+ , Al 3+ , Ni 2+ , Zn 2+ , Ca 2+ , Fe 3+ , Fe 2+ , K + , Na + , and Cd 2+ ) based on the test results. Besides, the detection limits were determined to be 2.12 × 10 −8 M through the standard curve plot. In addition, sensor PHE‐Ad shows high selectivity and sensitivity for Hg 2+ with a fast response in a suitable pH range. Furthermore, taking into account its good “turn‐on” fluorescent sensing behavior and low cell cytotoxicity, PHE‐Ad was successfully applied to detect and image Hg 2+ in real water samples and living cells, which shows great potentials for application in environmental and biological systems.