A rhodamine derivative as selective fluorescent and colorimetric chemosensor for mercury (II) in buffer solution, test strips and living cells.

In this paper, we reported a new rhodamine derivative bearing 2,4-dichloroquinazoline as a selective fluorescent chemosensor for Hg(2+). The ring-opening process of spirolactam enabled the large fluorescent enhancement and colorimetric change by Hg(2+) induced configuration transformation of the rhodamine. Moreover, the fluorescence changes of the chemosensor were dramatically specific for Hg(2+) in the presence of other metal ions, which could meet the selective requirements for practical application. Under optimized experimental conditions, the linear response range covered the concentration range of Hg(2+) from 0 to 1.0×10(-6)M, and the limit of detection was calculated to be 2.7×10(-8)M. In addition, the probe was also successfully applied to the determination of Hg(2+) in water samples, test strips and living cells.