A simple and efficient fluorescent probe based on 1,8-naphthalimide – Ebselen for selectively detecting H2S in living cells

A simple and efficient 1,8-naphthalimide-based fluorescent probe (EHN) was designed and synthesized, in which 1,8-naphthalimide was employed as a fluorophore and the nucleophilic addition site Se-N bond of ebselen as the recognition site of H2S. The results of the fluorescence recognition for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) show that the Se-N bond of ebselen can respond to H2S selectively based on intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. EHN has good fluorescence properties: large Stokes shift (106 nm) and remarkable stability at wide pH range (4 ∼ 10). EHN exhibits low LOD (0.135 μM) and fast response (within 100 s). Particularly, it has low cytotoxicity, good biocompatibility and behaves a "turn-on" effect on H2S. Furthermore, EHN can be used to image exogenous H2S in living cells and detect H2S in real water samples, suggesting its potential application in liveness detection and environmental protection.