Bioimaging research of a turn-on homodimer fluorescent probes for pH and viscosity: A new turn-on strategy

A turn-on homodimer fluorescent probe (BL) that responded to pH and viscosity was facilely synthesized based on homo-FRET. The probe exhibited strong fluorescence intensity and color changes in alkaline pH. In addition, the probe's fluorescence had altered with changes in viscosity. What's more, Mitochondrial localization and pH bioimaging in E. coli cell experiments confirmed that BL was a novel multifunctional probe that could be applied to mitochondrial-targeted fluorescence imaging under normal conditions and real-time fluorescence imaging of E. coli under alkaline conditions.