Highly selective detection and imaging of glyoxal through a novel fluorescent probe

A fluorescent probe (SWJT-18) based on o-phenylenediamine derivative was developed for the specific detection of glyoxal (GO). The probe shows an excellent fluorescence turn-on sensing and a visible colorimetric response to GO. And it exhibited high selectivity, rapid response time (15 min) and a low detection limit (0.34 µM). Notably, SWJT-18 was the first example for detection of GO only without interference of other aldehydes. Its sensing mechanism for GO was confirmed by 1H NMR, LC-MS and density functional theory calculations. In addition, this probe has been successfully applied to imaging of exogenous GO in HeLa cells.