A sensitive and selective fluorescence probe based fluorescein for detection of hypochlorous acid and its application for biological imaging

• The novel probe can easy to be synthesized.
• This sensor exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity for ClO−.
• Effective utilization of the probe for detection of ClO− in living cells.
• The probe has high fluorescence yield and biocompatibility to monitor ClO−.

A highly sensitive and selective fluorescein-based probe 1 for hypochlorite anion was synthesized. The probe 1 has favorable characteristics for biological imaging, including high water solubility, high fluorescence yield, pH-independent fluorescence, and biocompatibility. Results show that it has a detection limit of 40 nM to hypochlorite anion. In addition, confocal fluorescence microscopy imaging using RAW264.7 cells showed that the new probe 1 could be used as an effective fluorescent probe for detecting HOCl in living cells.