A reaction-based ratiometric fluorescent probe for mercury ion detection in aqueous solution

Abstract Mercury ions are crucially harmful to ecosystem and human being due to their characters of bioaccumulation and difficulty of biochemical degradation. Therefore, development of mercury ion detection methods has attracted increasing interests recently. In this study, we successfully synthesized a hydroxyphenylbenzothiazole (HBT)-based fluorescent probe HBT-Hg in an extremely simple manner for mercuric ions detection. The spectral studies revealed that the probe HBT-Hg could react with Hg2+ selectively and sensitively in PBS buffer (10 mM, pH = 7.40), showing ratiometric fluorescent changes from blue to light green. The response mechanism of the probe HBT-Hg and Hg2+ was finally confirmed by HPLC analysis, viz., the probe HBT-Hg converted to its precursor compound 1. Finally, the probe HBT-Hg was successfully applied in monitoring Hg2+ in living A549 cells.