A fluorescent chemosensor for Cu2+ ions and its application in cell imaging

A new on-off fluorescent probe 1 for Cu2+ based on Schiff base compound was designed and synthesized by one-step reaction. The single probe 1 exhibited strong green fluorescence emission. A fluorescence quenching effect and faint color change were observed as soon as the Cu2+ was added to the probe system in H2O/EtOH (v/v = 8:2, HEPES buffer, 0.05 M, pH = 7.4) solution. Other common metal cations did not cause the changes in the fluorescence and color of the probe 1. The optical properties were studied by the fluorescence emission and UV-Vis spectra. Meanwhile, the geometry optimizations of probe 1 and the [1-Cu2+] coordination complexes were also carried out by DFT using the Gaussian 09 program, in which the B3LYP function was used. Based on experimental measurement and theoretical analysis, we can know that the combination ratio of the probe and Cu2+ is 2:1 and the limit of detection (LOD) is as low as 5.3 × 10−9 M Besides, the probe 1 was also used to analyze the Cu2+ in living cells.

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