A dicyanoisophorone-based fluorescent probe for hypochlorite with a fast response and its applications in bioimaging

Abstract

One kind of phenolic substituted dicyanoisophorone derivative (Is-OL) has been designed and successfully synthesized for the detection of hypochlorite in water samples, test strips and living HeLa cells. The probe Is-OL showed high sensitivity and selectivity to hypochlorite over other competitive ROS and metal ions. Moreover, Is-OL can react instantaneously with hypochlorite (<5 s) while exhibiting a significant color change from yellow to colorless, which makes “naked-eye” detection possible with a low detection limit (0.095 μM). The results based on water tests and living HeLa cell experiments showed that Is-OL could be applied as a potential candidate for the detection of hypochlorite.