A novel nanomolar highly selective fluorescent probe for imaging mercury (II) in living cells and zebrafish

Abstract A novel fluorescent probe, PES , which contains a bisethylsulfane moiety, displayed high specificity for Hg 2+ detection. With Hg 2+ , PES showed significant blue fluorescence enhancement, while the metal ions Al 3+ , Ag + , Cr 3+ , Ca 2+ , Cu 2+ , Co 2+ , Cd 2+ , Fe 3+ , Fe 2+ , Mn 2+ , Mg 2+ , Ni 2+ , Zn 2+ , and Pb 2+ exhibited only negligible fluorescence change. PES has been found to be an effective quantitative detector (LOD, 57 nM) for Hg 2+ in semi-aqueous medium based on the Hg 2+ -induced removal of bisethylsulfane. It resulted in a turn-on blue fluorescence response. The fluorescence enhancement induced by Hg 2+ was observed over the pH range of 4–10. Our fluorescence cell-imaging experiments revealed the applicability of the new probe, PES , to be a reliable and effective fluorescent marker for Hg 2+ in living cells.