A commercial cyanine dye IR-780 and a thioether-containing dicarboxylic acid ligand were used to construct the near-infrared fluorescent probe, which was used as a near-infrared fluorescent indicator for the determination of mercury ions in water and in living cells. This indicator displayed high specificity towards Hg2+ without any interference from other detecting species. Especially, the emission at 790 nm dramatically increased more than 25 times after interacting with Hg2+. The binding experiment showed that the indicator formed 1:1 complex with Hg2+. More, this indicator could be applied in the visualization of Hg2+ in living cells and measuring the Hg2+ concentration of tap-water sample.
Keywords: Cell image; Cyanine; Fluorescent probe; Mercury ion; Near-infrared emission.
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