A dual-channel fluorescent probe for discriminative detection of sulfur dioxide and hydrazine

Hydrazine (N 2 H 4 ) and sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) play important roles in environmental systems and organisms, but their excessive intake can lead to several diseases. Due to the lack of two-color probes capable of distinguishing between N 2 H 4 and SO 2 , we synthesized a novel dual-channal NIR fluorescent probe PI-CO-NH based on piperazine-substituted benzopyranone salts and coumarin carboxylic acids, which is a dual-function probe capable of detecting SO 2 and N 2 H 4 . When detecting N 2 H 4 , PI-CO-NH showed rapid fluorescence changes at 447 nm and 633 nm emission channels, and both blue and red light gradually increased with the increase of N 2 H 4 concentration. After adding SO 2 , the double bond on benzopyrrole was broken and the red fluorescence was quenched. The experimental results show that the probe has high selectivity and sensitivity, excellent stabilit and high cell permeability, can visualize N 2 H 4 and SO 2 in living cells, and has good mitochondrial targeting ability. More importantly, the ability of PI-CO-NH to detect N 2 H 4 in different soil samples and test strips was successfully verified. These experiments not only validate the applicability of the probe in complex environment, but also provide a strong basis for the future application of PI-CO-NH in environmental pollution detection.