Rapidly responsive and highly selective fluorescent probe for sulfite detection in real samples and living cells

Sulfites (HSO3(-) or SO3(-)) have very significant toxicity in the environment and in the system. However, developing specific identification of sulfite probes is still very important. In this paper, a highly selective colorimetric and fluorescent probe (HHC) was synthesized to detect HSO3(-) in real samples and living cells. Sensing performance and preponderance are listed as follows. First, probe HHC showed remarkable selectivity for HSO3(-) over varieties of other species, including cysteine, glutathione, S(2-), CN(-), and reactive oxygen species, mainly because of the introduction of the electron-poor C=C double bond for HSO3(-). Second, probe HHC has great molar absorptivity, allowing it to act as a visual detection of probe for HSO3(-). Third, the fluorescence intensities of HHC linearly correlate with the concentration of HSO3(-), with a detection limit of 6.8 nm. Finally, our proposed probe can be applied to the visually determination of trace HSO3(-) in real samples and living HeLa cells with high precision. We hope that our proposed probe will greatly benefit biological sciences when biological researchers survey the role of HSO3(-) in biological systems.