Kaempferol as an AIE-active natural product probe for selective Al 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 Al in the aggregation state. Upon the addition of Al, the probe displayed more than 12-fold (I/I) fluorescence intensity enhancement, accompanied by a color change, suggesting that the aggregated kaempferol can be used as a ratiometric probe for Al detecting. Notably, promising selectivity to Al 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 Al in the plant.