A selective near-infrared fluorescent probe for hydrogen sulfide and its application in sulfate-reducing bacteria detection

Abstract

Since sulfide has been considered as an important gasotransmitter in human activities, increased attention has been paid to its rapid detection. This work presented a novel near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe NIR-HS for sulfide detection based on thiolysis of dinitrophenyl ether. The probe was selective to sulfide over other common anion interferents with a large turn-on NIR fluorescence signal at 715 nm. Furthermore, the proposed NIR fluorescent probe NIR-HS was successfully applied in imaging and detection of sulfate-reducing bacteria, which could metabolize sulfide during their growth process, indicating that the probe NIR-HS was cell membrane permeable and could be used for sulfide monitoring in live cells and real samples.