A near-infrared ratiometric fluorescent probe with large stokes shift for rapid detection of ClO− in living cells

Both of lipid droplets (LDs) and hypochlorous acid/hypochlorite (HClO/ClO−) play important roles in regulating cell metabolism and maintaining normal operation of life activities. Here, we report the synthesis of probe T, which is a typical compound with AIE properties. The probe T can not only detect ClO− by proportional fluorescence, but also specifically target LDs. T displayed an excellent spectral performance with a long emission wavelength (715 nm), large stokes shift (211 nm), wide pH response range. When it encountered ClO−, the fluorescence color changed from red to blue with a large fluorescence signal shift (from 715 nm to 430 nm) and good sensitivity (detection limit: 0.102 μM). More interestingly, we successfully advanced the response speed of T to ClO− by loading the AIE probe with protein. Additionally, cell imaging experiments demonstrated that T was perfectly utilized to visualize exogenous/endogenous ClO− in cells and possessed an excellent LDs-targeting ability.