A turn-on fluorescent probe for hypochlorous acid based on HOCl-promoted removal of the CN bond in BODIPY-hydrazone

A boron dipyrromethene-based fluorescent probe, BODH, has been successfully developed for hypochlorous acid detection based on the HOCl-promoted oxidative removal of the CN bond in response to the amount of HOCl. The reaction is accompanied by a 6-fold increase in fluorescent quantum yield (from 0.05 to 0.29). The fluorescence intensity of the reaction between HOCl and BODH shows a good linearity in the HOCl concentration range of 1–25 μM with a low detection limit of 205 nM (S/N = 3). Confocal fluorescence microscopy imaging using RAW264.7 cells shows that the new probe, BODH, can be used as an effective fluorescent probe for the detection of HOCl in living cells.