Abstract
A novel valine-based isocyanonaphthalene (NpI) was designed and synthesized by using an easy method and enabled the selective fluorescence detection of Hg2+. The chemodosimeter can display an immediate turn-on fluorescence response (500-fold) towards target metal ions upon the Hg2+-mediated conversion of isocyano to amino within NpI. Based on this specific reaction, the fluorescence-enhancement probe revealed a high sensitivity toward Hg2+ over other common metal ions and exhibited excellent aqueous solubility, good antijamming capability, high sensitivity (detection limit: 14.2 nM), and real-time detection. The response mechanism of NpI was supported by NMR spectroscopy, MS analysis and DFT theoretical calculation using various techniques. Moreover, a dipeptidomimetic NpI probe was successfully applied to visualize intracellular Hg2+ in living cells and monitor Hg2+ in real water samples with good recoveries and small relative standard deviations.
Highlights
IntroductionMercury in the environment is one of the most hazardous heavy metals because of its known toxicity and accumulated features towards some aquatic life and humans
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), analytical HgCl2, all synthetic starting materials, and solvents were used as received without further purification
The practical synthetic route of the new dipeptidomimetic NpI is shown in Scheme 1, and the target compound and related precursors were fully characterized via standard NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS)
Summary
Mercury in the environment is one of the most hazardous heavy metals because of its known toxicity and accumulated features towards some aquatic life and humans. Studies revealed that exposure of the body to inorganic mercury in health risks (mostly in the form of Hg2+), will result in substantial damage to the nervous system and endocrine system. These mercuric salts have a high affinity for thiol groups containing proteins and enzymes, which are mainly damaged kidneys and widely distributed throughout the body. Developing novel fluorescent sensors for Hg2+ with good selectivity, high sensitivity. and more importantly applicable to complex environmental and biological systems, has received considerable interest in the areas (Carter, et al, 2014; Wu, et al, 2017)
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