A new phenothiazine-based fluorescence sensor for imaging Hg2+in living cells

A new phenothiazine-based sensor PHE-Ad for monitoring Hg(2+)has been designed and synthesized based on the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. The probes were characterized by FTIR,H-1 NMR, and HRMS, and their optical properties were detected by UV and FL. It's showed the probes detection of Hg(2+)compared to other metal ions (Mg2+, Cu2+, Hg2+, Ag+, Co2+, Cr3+, Al3+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Ca2+, Fe3+, Fe2+, K+, Na+, and Cd2+) based on the test results. Besides, the detection limits were determined to be 2.12 x 10(-8)M through the standard curve plot. In addition, sensor PHE-Ad shows high selectivity and sensitivity for Hg(2+)with a fast response in a suitable pH range. Furthermore, taking into account its good "turn-on" fluorescent sensing behavior and low cell cytotoxicity, PHE-Ad was successfully applied to detect and image Hg(2+)in real water samples and living cells, which shows great potentials for application in environmental and biological systems.