A simple pyrene-based fluorescent probe for highly selective detection of formaldehyde and its application in live-cell imaging

Abstract A novel and simple pyrene-based fluorescent probe ( B1 ) was synthesized and used for the detection of formaldehyde (FA). When B1 was added to FA in CH 3 CH 2 OH/HEPES (10 mM, pH = 7.4, 1:99, v/v) solution, the solution system strongly enhanced the fluorescence. Over various small molecular species, probe B1 showed high sensitivity and selectivity for detecting FA, with a low limit of detection (0.107 μM). Furthermore, probe B1 was successfully applied for visualizing FA in human embryonic kidney (HEK293T) cells, demonstrating its value of application in living biomedical samples.