A highly selective fluorescent probe for detection of H2S based-on benzothiazole and its application

Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide plays an essential roles in physiological and pathophysiological process. It is still a challenge to design a simple and reasonable H2S-specfic fluorescent probe. Herein, we develop a simple reaction-based fluorescent probe for detecting H2S in DMF/Tris-HCl buffer system. Fluorescence emission spectra were used to investigate the recognition performance of probe L towards hydrogen sulfide. The results shown that probe L has a specific recognition towards hydrogen sulfide over other tested metal cations and anions with a rapid response. The probe L combined with H2S in a 1: 1 manner with a detection limit of 0.372 μM. The appropriate pH range for detecting H2S was 4 ∼ 8. The proposed recognition mechanism was studied by fluorescence titration spectrum, Job’s plot, 1H NMR titration experiment and mass spectrometry analysis. Moreover, probe L was applied in real water samples, test strips and fluorescent films to detect H2S successfully.