A novel fluorescent probe for the ratiometric recognition of protein based on intramolecular charge transfer

The quantitative recognition of proteins receives great importance in the fields of biology and biomedicine. Though the ratiometric fluorescent probe is a good choice for the quantitative recognition which is less susceptible to the environmental and instrumental interference, very few examples have been reported in the protein identification. In this work, a novel and interesting probe, MY, was developed for the quantitative recognition of serum albumin based on the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. By the structure regulation, the distribution between ICT and twisted ICT state was well controlled. The MY showed a fast, sensitive, and ratiometric response to the serum albumin. Besides, the accurate recognition of serum albumin in practical samples exhibited good recoveries compared with the bromocresol green-based standard method.