Simple and commercially available imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-8-carboxylic acid-based fluorescent pH probe for basic conditions

Abstract

Searching for new probes for pH detection is useful for the diagnosis of related diseases. However, the fluorescent probes that can respond to pH value less than 4 or greater than 8 are scarce and multisteps are needed to synthesize such probes. Thus, exploration of simple pH fluorescent probes for strong acid or basic system is an urgent task. Herein, we report a commercially available compound 6-chloroimidazo [1,2-a]pyridine-2-carboxylic acid IP-YC as the pH probe (> 7) and its bioimaging in S. cerevisiae and HepG2 cells.