Synthesis and application of dual-channel fluorescent probes for selective recognition of SO2/H2O2

The balance between active oxidizing species and active reducing species plays an important role in cell metabolism. A multitude of excellent probes can be used for the discriminative detection of reactive REDOX pairs have been reported. However, probes that can be used to detect both sulfur dioxide (SO2) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) have not been reported. In this work, we synthesized benzoindolium probes BI and BBI containing boronic acid pinacol ester group, which can distinguish sulfur dioxide (SO2) and hydrogen oxide (H2O2) by generating different fluorescence signals. They also have the advantages of fast response time, high sensitivity, and high selectivity. In addition, the probes successfully achieved fluorescence imaging of SO2 and H2O2 in HeLa cells and zebrafish.