A fluorescent probe based upon anthrancene-dopamine thioether for imaging Hg ions in living cells.

A novel anthrancene-dopamine thioether L compound was designed as fluorescent probe for detecting Hg in living cells sample. L exhibits a good sensitive and selective recognition towards Hg ions in the presence of other important relevant metal ions and amino acids in HEPES solution. The addition of Hg causes a marked enhancement in the fluorescence emission intensity with the detection limit as low as 1.1×10M, combining with obvious colormetric change from colorless to pale brown. Mechanistic studies show that catechol group and sulfur atom in L all participate in the coordination with Hg, though catechol group contributes mainly to chelation-enhanced fluorescence enhancement and sulfur atom to selectivity. Furthermore, L demonstrates good cell permeability and compatibility for sensitive fluorescent detection of Hg in HepG2 cells. This present probe will have broad applications in biological imaging.