A merocyanine-based dual-mode optical probe for detection of hydrazine and its bioimaging application in vitro and vivo.

In this paper, a Merocyanine-based turn-on probe (McyA) has been developed for colorimetric and fluorescent dual-mode detection of N2H4 via an intra-molecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. In the presence of N2H4, the probe shows an obvious chromogenic response and fluorescent enhancement. Based on this feature, the synthesized McyA can be applied to quantify N2H4 concentration from 0.12 to 5.0 μM and 0.5-10 μM with a detection limit of 0.042 μM (1.3 ppb, S/N = 3) and 0.140 μM (4.5 ppb, S/N = 3), respectively. Moreover, McyA has also be successfully employed for imaging analysis of N2H4 distribution in different organs from the N2H4 ingested mice model, revealing the potential application of McyA as a powerful fluorescent sensor for tracking detection and risk assessment of hydrazine in vivo.