A dual-response ratiometric fluorescent probe for hypochlorite and hydrazine detection and its imaging in living cells

Abstract In this work, a dual-response ratiometric fluorescent probe (E)-3-(5-(2-nitrovinyl)thiophen-2-yl)-9-phenyl-9H-carbazole (NTPC) for high selectivity and sensitivity detection of ClO− and N2H4 was successfully developed. This probe NTPC showed ratiometric fluorescent response to ClO− and N2H4, which induces obvious naked-eye color changes, respectively. In addition, the NTPC for ClO− and N2H4 detection displayed low detection limits of 71.4 nM and 0.6 μM, respectively. And the sensing mechanism of NTPC with ClO− and N2H4 was well confirmed by 1H NMR and HR-MS spectra. Moreover, this novel probe was applied to monitoring and differentiating ClO− and N2H4 in living cells, and exhibits good biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity.