A dual-function fluorescent probe: Sensitive detection of water content in commercial products and rapid detection of hypochlorite with a large Stokes shift

Abstract

It is of great significance to design a single probe, which can detect two different types of analytes. Herein, we synthesized the first dual-function fluorescent probe (probe FSQTZ) for the detection of water content and hypochlorite (ClO−) under different excitation wavelengths. The probe itself had strong fluorescence in four dry organic solvent, and the increase of water content could cause its fluorescence quenching and fluorescence color change. The probe was especially responsive to water in acetone (LOD = 0.014 wt %), and it can be employed to detect tiny amounts of water in commercial products such as aginomoto, salt, dried jasmine, and dried dates. Meanwhile, probe FSQTZ can selectively detect ClO− in aqueous solution with a remarkable large Stokes shift (168 nm), a rapid response time (within 10 s), an obvious change of color, a wide pH range of response, and it was also applied for imaging ClO− in PC12 cells. Furthermore, the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram was successfully used to show the accurate color changes of probe.