A new family of acidity sensitive fluorescent macrocycles has been synthesized and fully characterized. Their photophysical properties including emission quantum yield and fluorescence lifetime have been determined. The acid–base properties of the new molecules can be tuned by the incorporation of pendant functional groups. The nature of such functional groups (carboxylic acid or ester) influences dramatically the pKa of the probes, two compounds of which exhibit low values. Preliminary intracellular studies using confocal microscopy together with emission spectra of the probes from the cellular environment have shown that the synthesized fluorescent macrocycles mark the acidic organelles of RAW 264.7 macrophage cells.
