Highly selective relay recognition of hydrogen sulfide and Hg(II) by a commercially available fluorescent chemosensor and its application in bioimaging

A simple fluorescent probe, perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride, which is a commercially available organic pigment intermediate was reported as a fluorescence chemosensor for Hg(II). This probe can high selectively recognize hydrogen sulfide in water:DMSO (1:1 (v/v), 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer, pH 7.4) solutions. Namely, with addition of various anions, only HS − can induce a turn on green fluorescence. The mechanism is that perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride was hydrolyzed and subsequently displaced when meeting with hydrogen sulfide. More interestingly, probe–hydrogen sulfide can successively detect Hg 2+ . The detection mechanism was based on Hg 2+ snatching up sulfur group of probe–HS − adduct, which makes the probe regenerative. And their reaction products were proved by ESI-MS. Their potential application in bioimaging was also illustrated.