A novel fluorescent probe for fast detection of sulfur dioxide derivatives in water, soil, food samples and its applications in biological imaging.

Sulfur dioxide (SO) has a wide range of applications in food additives and industrial production, and it is one of the main substances that form acid rain, causing serious harm to ecosystems and human health. Hence, it is necessary to construct an effective tool to quickly and accurately detect SO derivatives in environmental, food, and biological samples. In this study, fluorescent probe NPMQ was built to detect SO derivatives from nopinone with the merits of superior water solubility, high sensitivity (12 nM), excellent specificity, large Stokes shift (180 nm), and rapid response time (within 5 s). NPMQ was used to qualitatively and quantitatively detect SO derivatives in environmental water, soil and food samples. In addition, an electrospinning film was prepared with the probe NPMQ to image SO derivatives, and test strips are capable of rapidly, sensitively, and selectively detecting SO derivatives with the naked eye. Moreover, the probe NPMQ was used to visualize endogenous SO derivatives in Arabidopsis thaliana under Cd stress. Furthermore, the probe NPMQ was employed to image exogenous and endogenous SO derivatives in living Hela, HepG-2 cells, and zebrafish. This study develops an effective tool for monitoring SO derivatives in the environmental, food, and biological systems.