Cyclization of chalcone enables ratiometric fluorescence determination of hydrazine with a high selectivity

Abstract

Precise determination of hydrazine has gained a great importance for the environmental ecology and health risk assessment owing to the significant biotoxicity of hydrazine. However, most existing fluorescent hydrazine probes, whose selectivity relies on the nucleophilicity of one −NH2 group on hydrazine, cannot effectively discriminate hydrazine from other amine species, especially for hydroxylamine. In this work, we develop a simple fluorescent probe (TAPHP) for hydrazine detection based on a chemoselective hydrazine-induced chalcone cyclization. The probe responds specifically and quantitatively to hydrazine with a discernible ratiometric fluorescence change. Notably, the newly developed probe TAPHP can be successfully applied for hydrazine imaging in living cells and zebrafish embryos. This finding offers a straightforward strategy to achieve the high selectivity towards hydrazine, and may enlightening further development of hydrazine probes.