A novel highly sensitive and near-infrared fluorescent probe for detecting hypochlorite and its application in actual water sample and bioimaging.

Highly sensitive specific and ultrasensitive fluorescent probes are employed for tracking ClO⁻ for revealing its various cellular functions in living cells. In this work, a near-infrared fluorescence probe, XS-1, has been developed for tracking ClO⁻. The experimental results demonstrated that the probe, XS-1, could determine ClO⁻ at the linear range of 0-2 μM with a low detection limit of 72 nM (λex/em = 580/626 nm). XS-1 can specifically detect ClO⁻, which can be applied for determining the basal ClO⁻ and the fluctuation of exogenous ClO⁻ in living cells. For further confirming its practicability, the probe was applied for detecting the hypochlorite content in the actual water sample. The recovery rate (92.7%-102.9%) displayed satisfactory values in the tap water and 84 disinfectants. In addition, we carried out theoretical calculations for clarifying the luminescence mechanism of the system.