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.