Pyrene‐Based “Turn‐On” Fluorescent Polymeric Probe with Thioacetal Units in the Main Chain for Mercury(II) Detection in Aqueous Solutions and Living Cells

Abstract A water‐soluble polymeric pyrene‐based polythioacetal (PTA‐Py) with thioacetal units in the main chain is simply synthesized by direct polycondensation of 3, 6‐dioxa‐1, 8‐octanedithiol, 1‐pyrene formaldehyde, and mPEG2k‐SH. The probe PTA‐Py shows a good fluorescence response to Hg 2+ ions due to the Hg 2+ ‐promoted deprotection reaction of thioacetal groups to regenerate the original 1‐pyrene formaldehyde compound. After adding Hg 2+ to the PTA‐Py solution, the fluorescence intensity (FI) gradually increases with increasing concentrations of Hg 2+ . Compared with other metal ions, the probe exhibits high sensitivity, good selectivity, and rapid response to Hg 2+ . The low detection limits are 12.3 n m in ethanol‐PBS buffer and 13.3 n m in water, respectively. The results imply that the simply synthesized water‐soluble polymeric probe had potential applications in the rapid detection of Hg 2+ ions in aqueous solutions. Moreover, the polymeric PTA‐Py shows high sensitivity for CH 3 Hg + with detection limits of 26.5 n m in ethanol/PBS buffer. In addition, PTA‐Py can efficiently detect Hg 2+ ions in HeLa cells. The results demonstrate that a valuable method is developed for biocompatible polymeric sensors for Hg 2+ ions in biological and environmental samples.