A dual-response fluorescent probe for detection and bioimaging of hydrazine and cyanide with different fluorescence signals

Shuai Mu; Hong Gao; Chen Li; Shanshan Li; Yaya Wang; Yuan Zhang; Chunmeng Ma; Haixia Zhang; Xiaoyan Liu

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121606

A dual-response fluorescent probe for detection and bioimaging of hydrazine and cyanide with different fluorescence signals

Talanta. 2021 Jan 1:221:121606. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121606. Epub 2020 Sep 8.

Authors

Shuai Mu¹, Hong Gao¹, Chen Li², Shanshan Li¹, Yaya Wang¹, Yuan Zhang¹, Chunmeng Ma¹, Haixia Zhang³, Xiaoyan Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metals Chemistry and Resources Utilization of Gansu Province and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
² Department of Anatomy and Histology, Lanzhou University School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metals Chemistry and Resources Utilization of Gansu Province and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China. Electronic address: zhanghx@lzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33076136
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121606

Abstract

Due to favourable efficiency and low cost, dual-response fluorescent probes play critical roles in the development of fluorescence assay system. Herein, a novel dual-response fluorescent probe (RDCN) was designed and synthesized for the detection of two environmental contaminants: hydrazine (N₂H₄) and cyanide (CN^-). Probe RDCN exhibited discriminative sensing behaviors to N₂H₄ and CN^- with different reaction mechanisms, allowing the high selectivity and sensitivity detection for N₂H₄ and CN^-. The probe itself displayed red-emitting fluorescence as a result of strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) between diethylamino and dicyano. After mixing with hydrazine, a new corresponding hydrazone came into being with an intense yellow fluorescence. While, the probe could also largely switch to blue fluorescence in response to CN^-. Furthermore, the probe RDCN was successfully employed to determine N₂H₄ and CN^- in water samples with the detection limits of 0.08 μM and 0.33 μM, and to visualize N₂H₄ and CN^- in live cells by means of different fluorescence channels (blue and yellow channels), revealing that probe RDCN has potential applications for discriminative detection N₂H₄ and CN^- in biological environment.

Keywords: Cell imaging; Cyanide; Dual-response; Fluorescent probe; Hydrazine.