Pyrene‐Based “Turn‐On” Fluorescent Polymeric Probe with Thioacetal Units in the Main Chain for Mercury(II) Detection in Aqueous Solutions and Living Cells
Gu Yu, Siyong Li, Yue Yu, Jianjian Zhu, Xingyu Yuan, Xinxin Feng, Yanbing Lu
Abstract
Abstract A water‐soluble polymeric pyrene‐based polythioacetal (PTA‐Py) with thioacetal units in the main chain is simply synthesized by direct polycondensation of 3, 6‐dioxa‐1, 8‐octanedithiol, 1‐pyrene formaldehyde, and mPEG2k‐SH. The probe PTA‐Py shows a good fluorescence response to Hg 2+ ions due to the Hg 2+ ‐promoted deprotection reaction of thioacetal groups to regenerate the original 1‐pyrene formaldehyde compound. After adding Hg 2+ to the PTA‐Py solution, the fluorescence intensity (FI) gradually increases with increasing concentrations of Hg 2+ . Compared with other metal ions, the probe exhibits high sensitivity, good selectivity, and rapid response to Hg 2+ . The low detection limits are 12.3 n m in ethanol‐PBS buffer and 13.3 n m in water, respectively. The results imply that the simply synthesized water‐soluble polymeric probe had potential applications in the rapid detection of Hg 2+ ions in aqueous solutions. Moreover, the polymeric PTA‐Py shows high sensitivity for CH 3 Hg + with detection limits of 26.5 n m in ethanol/PBS buffer. In addition, PTA‐Py can efficiently detect Hg 2+ ions in HeLa cells. The results demonstrate that a valuable method is developed for biocompatible polymeric sensors for Hg 2+ ions in biological and environmental samples.