A novel "turn-on" fluorescent probe based on hydroxy functionalized naphthalimide as a logic platform for visual...

A novel hydroxy functionalized naphthalimide-based fluorescent probe (denoted SP2)was successfully designed and synthesized for monitoring of H₂S in living cells and environmental. In particular, SP2 can detect the H₂S without assistance of organic solvent or surfactant. When H₂S is present, the azide group in SP2 was reduced to amine group, resulting in a turn-on fluorescence signal. This remarkable properties of SP2 enable its applications in monitoring ex/endogenous H₂S in HepG-2 cells and hydrogen sulfide release in laboratories or chemical plants through visual recognition by optical color change. The probe displays highly selective and sensitive recognition to H₂S, with a low detection limit of 50.8 nM. Futhermore, this work presents the possibility of using naphthalimide-based "logic gate" platform for monitoring H₂S in biological and environmental samples.