A coumarin-based fluorescent probe for selective and sensitive detection of thiophenols and its application.

The development of probes for specific thiophenol detection is of great importance, due to the toxicity of thiophenols and their derivatives in the environment. In the present study, a novel fluorescent probe was rationally designed for detecting thiophenols via an intramolecular charge transfer mechanism. The developed probe selectively and sensitively distinguished thiophenols from aliphatic thiols. It displayed a large Stokes shift (145 nm) and >280-fold fluorescence enhancement. Moreover, the new probe not only displayed excellent cell permeability for the successful detection of thiophenol in HEK293 cells but also quantitatively measured thiophenols in water samples with good recovery (more than 90%), indicating that it has promising prospects for application for thiophenol sensing in environmental and biological sciences.