Aggregation-induced emission mechanism-enable fluorescent probes base on benzothiazine for detecting hypochlorous...

Hypochlorous acid (HClO), as a member of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) family with unique biological properties, plays a sophisticated regulatory role in maintaining organismal homeostasis. In this study, a novel aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorescent probe OEA-BSZ with "off-on-off" response characteristics was successfully constructed by innovatively using benzothiazine as the molecular framework. This probe exhibits unique dual-mode response behavior: it shows a significant AIE activation effect in the aqueous phase ("off-on" transition), and undergoes fluorescence quenching in the presence of HClO ("on-off "transition). This phenomenon is attributed to the novel AIE mechanism we have first revealed. Moreover, OEA-BSZ was successfully applied to the detection of HClO in real water samples by adding a certain amount of standard HClO with known concentration to the samples. This study presents the first application of benzothiazine-based fluorescent probes based on the AIE mechanism for HClO recognition.