Kaempferol as an AIE-active natural product probe for selective Al3+ detection in Arabidopsis thaliana

In this work, a natural product probe, kaempferol, which exhibited aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristic in water/tetrahydrofuran (THF) binary solvent was explored. The probe showed high resistance to photobleaching capacity and excellent selectivity towards Al3+ in the aggregation state. Upon the addition of Al3+, the probe displayed more than 12-fold (I486/I421) fluorescence intensity enhancement, accompanied by a color change, suggesting that the aggregated kaempferol can be used as a ratiometric probe for Al3+ detecting. Notably, promising selectivity to Al3+ within the pH range of 6–8 made the probe suitable for physiological conditions. Further Arabidopsis thaliana root imaging experiment demonstrated that the probe could image Al3+ in the plant.