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Updated: Dec 29, 2025

IridiumIII Luminescent Probe for Detection of the Malarial Protein Biomarker Histidine Rich Protein-II
Published on: July 7, 2015
A highly sensitive and selective colorimetric probe based on a cycloruthenated complex: an Hg2+-promoted switch of
Xianghong Li1, Kang Du, Chaoyi Xie
1Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry of State Ethnic Affairs Commission, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, PR China. lixhchem@mail.scuec.edu.cn.
Abstract:
A cyclometalated ruthenium complex [Ru(pthb)(bpy)2]+ (1, bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, Hpthb = 3,3-dimethyl-2-(5-pyridylthiophen-2-yl)vinyl-benzo[e]indolium-1-propylsulfonate) could be converted from a C-coordinated structure to non-metallated species with N,S-bonded Hpthb upon treatment with mercury(ii) ions in water. Strikingly, the switch in the coordination mode resulted in a great absorption change along with a change in the solution color of 1 from dark red to light yellow. Therefore, 1 can be used as a colorimetric probe to detect mercury(ii) ions by the naked eye. Although the emission was not observed for 1 in water, it still demonstrated an appreciably low detection limit of 21 nM by using UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, which was comparable with those of some probes determined by ratiometric fluorescence spectroscopy.

