A novel fluorescent probe based on acridine derivatives for rapid and specific detection of NH and its application in environment and biological imaging.

Hydrazine (NH) is very important chemical with a wide range of applications in various domains. Nevertheless, it is highly toxic and poses significant environmental hazards. In this work, a novel tetrahydroacridine-type fluorescent probe (E)-2-(2-(4-butoxy-4'-(1,1,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,4,5,6,12b-hexahydro-2H-2,4a-methanobenzo[c]acridin-7-yl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-3-yl)vinyl)-3-ethylbenzo[d]thiazol-3-ium (ABP-BBT) for the detection of NH was successfully synthesized from the sesquiterpenoid isolongifolanone. The results demonstrated that ABP-BBT displayed exceptional selectivity, high sensitivity and a low detection limit (7.5 nM) towards NH, along with a large Stokes shift (>150 nm). The recognition mechanism of probe ABP-BBT for NH was elucidated via H NMR titration and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS) analysis. ABP-BBT has been successfully applied in the detection of NH in three types of soil samples including sandy soil, loess soil and black soil, and displayed good environmental adaptability. Additionally, ABP-BBT was also used for exogenous imaging of NH in onion tissues, HepG2 cells, and zebrafish, demonstrating its potential in the detection of NH within biological organisms.