A near-infrared fluorescent probe for hydrogen sulfide in living cells

•A near-infrared fluorescent probe for hydrogen sulfide was synthesized.•The addition of H2S induced an appearance of emission centered at 655 nm.•The probe is extremely sensitive to H2S with 354-fold emission enhancement.•The probe has an excellent selectivity for H2S.•The probe can sense H2S in living cells.

Fluorescent probes for hydrogen sulfide have received considerable attention because of the biological significance of H2S recognized recently. However, near-infrared fluorescent probes for H2S are still rare. In this work, a new near-infrared fluorescent probe for H2S was developed based on the reduction reaction of azide with H2S to amine based on the fluorophore of dicyanomethylene-4H-chromene because of its long excitation and emission wavelength. The probe has a high selectivity for H2S over competitive anions and sulfide-containing analytes. Finally, the probe was applied to sense H2S in living cells.

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