A facile, sensitive and selective fluorescent probe for heparin based on aggregation-induced emission

•A fluorescent probe for heparin based on aggregation-induced emission was reported.•The probe could aggregate on heparin through electrostatic interactions.•Highly sensitive and selective with rapidly responsive fluorescence detection of heparin was achieved.•The method was applied for heparin detection in diluted horse serum samples.

A facile, rapidly responsive fluorescence turn-on probe for heparin with high selectivity and sensitivity was reported in this paper. The probe could aggregate on the negatively charged heparin template through electrostatic interactions and then display intense fluorescence due to its aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. Under optimal condition, the probe showed high selectivity to heparin over chondroitin sulfate(ChS), hyaluronic acid (HA), dextran (DeX) and other substances, with a linear range of 0.2–14 μg/mL, and a detection limit of 57.6 ng/mL. In diluted serum, it also showed good performance.