A dual-response fluorescent probe for detection and bioimaging of hydrazine and cyanide with different fluorescence signals.

Due to favourable efficiency and low cost, dual-response fluorescent probes play critical roles in the development of fluorescence assay system. Herein, a novel dual-response fluorescent probe (RDCN) was designed and synthesized for the detection of two environmental contaminants: hydrazine (NH) and cyanide (CN). Probe RDCN exhibited discriminative sensing behaviors to NH and CN with different reaction mechanisms, allowing the high selectivity and sensitivity detection for NH and CN. The probe itself displayed red-emitting fluorescence as a result of strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) between diethylamino and dicyano. After mixing with hydrazine, a new corresponding hydrazone came into being with an intense yellow fluorescence. While, the probe could also largely switch to blue fluorescence in response to CN. Furthermore, the probe RDCN was successfully employed to determine NH and CN in water samples with the detection limits of 0.08 μM and 0.33 μM, and to visualize NH and CN in live cells by means of different fluorescence channels (blue and yellow channels), revealing that probe RDCN has potential applications for discriminative detection NH and CN in biological environment.