The detection for hypochlorite by UV–Vis and fluorescent spectra based on oxidized ring opening and successive hydrolysis reaction

•Two new fluorescent probes for hypochlorite were developed.•The detection could be realized in quasi-aqueous phase with low detection.•The probe could be used to monitor intracellular ClO− in HepG2 cells.

In this work, two high selective and sensitive fluorescent probes for ClO−, 7-Hydroxycoumarin and 4-Hydroxycoumarin were designed. The reaction mechanism that we speculated was the oxidized ring opening reaction and hydrolysis. The detection could be realized in quasi-aqueous phase and the detection limits of probe [7] and probe [4] for ClO− were found to be 56.8 nM and 70.5 nM. Furthermore, the probes can be used to cell imagings.

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