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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

A Sensitive Visual Method for the Detection of Hydrogen Sulfide Producing Bacteria
Published on: June 27, 2022
A fluorescent probe based on tetrahydro[5]helicene for highly selective recognition of hydrogen sulfide
Yang Lei1, Kun-Peng Wang1, Shaojin Chen1
1Key Laboratory of Sensor Analysis of Tumor Marker, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Eco-chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, PR China.
Abstract:
Endogenous hydrogen sulfide plays an important role in various physiological and pathological processes and the convenient and selective recognition of hydrogen sulfide has become a research hotspot. We designed and synthesized a tetrahydro[5]helicene and 2,4-dinitrobenzene conjugate (HD-DNP) as an effective fluorescent probe for selective detection of H2S. The selective deprotection of 2,4-dinitrophenyl ether group of HD-DNP by H2S led to a dramatic fluorescent enhancement (101-fold) at 500 nm and colorimetric change in DMSO-PBS solution. HD-DNP displays many advantages including low background without any self-fluorescence, as well as high selectivity towards common bio-thiols such as Cysteine, Homocysteine and Glutathione. The detection limit of this probe for H2S was found to be about 2.4 μM with a wide linear range (10-70 μM). The response mechanism of the probe with HS- is confirmed to be thiolysis of the dinitrophenyl ether induced by HS- through 1H NMR comparison investigations.
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