A dual-response fluoran-phenothiazine hybrid fluorescent probe for selective sensing of Fe3+ and ClO− and cell imaging application

Abstract

Bifunctional fluorescent probes with dual-emission response attract extensive attention. A novel fluorescent probe FP, a hybrid of fluoran and phenothiazine, has been designed and synthesized for selective sensing of Fe3+ and ClO− with dual-emission changes, which involes mechanisms of Fe3+-promoted spirolactone ring opening and ClO−-induced oxidation of phenothiazine moiety, respectively. In addition, the detection limits for Fe3+ and ClO− were estimated to be 49.1 and 35.9 nM, respectively. Significantly, FP can be employed as an tracer for the detection of Fe3+ ions within living HeLa cells by fluorescence imaging.