A NIR fluorescent probe for rapid turn-on detection and bioimaging of hypochlorite anion

A near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe (SWJT-1) based on CN isomerization was designed and synthesized for the detection of ClO–. SWJT-1 showed an excellent NIR fluorescent response to ClO– and a visible colorimetric change from yellow to pink. Meanwhile, it showed low detection limit (11.51 nM), high selectivity and rapid detection (≤2 s) for ClO– over various interfering analytes. The sensing mechanism of SWJT-1 for ClO– was confirmed by 1H NMR, ESI-MS and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Furthermore, this probe had been successfully applied to the bioimaging for the detection of ClO– in vitro and vivo.