A simple levulinate-based ratiometric fluorescent probe for sulfite with a large emission shift.

A simple 4-hydroxynaphthalimide-derived colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescent probe (1) containing a receptor of levulinate moiety was designed and synthesized to monitor sulfite. Probe 1 could quantificationally detect sulfite by a ratiometric fluorescence spectroscopy method with high selectivity and sensitivity. Specially, probe 1 exhibited a 100 nm red-shifted absorption spectrum along with the color changes from colorless to yellow, and 103 nm red-shifted emission spectra upon the addition of sulfite. Thus, 1 can serve as a "naked-eye" probe for sulfite. Further, the recognition mechanism of probe 1 for sulfite was confirmed using nuclear magnetic resonance and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Also, the preliminary practical application demonstrated that our proposed probe provided a promising method for the determination of sulfite.