Naphthylthiourea-modified permethylcyclodextrin as a highly sensitive and selective "turn-on" fluorescent chemosensor for Hg2+ in water and living cells.

A naphthylthiourea-modified cyclodextrin (1) and its urea derivative (2) were synthesized, and their fluorescence behaviors in the presence of various metal ions were investigated. Significantly, 1 showed a highly sensitive and selective fluorescence sensing ability for Hg(2+) over other metal ions in both water and living cells. That is, the addition of Hg(2+) to an aqueous solution of 1 gave a significantly enhanced fluorescence at ~380 nm. In contrast, the addition of other metal ions induced negligible fluorescence changes. The possible mechanism may be due to the transformation of thiourea to urea by Hg(2+)-induced desulfurization in water.