Owing to the extreme toxicity of mercury, methods for its selective and sensitive sensing in solutions, and in live cells and tissues are in great demand. In this study, we developed a naphthalimide-based diphenylphosphinothioyl group-containing fluorescent and colorimetric probe that selectively detects mercury (Hg2+). Upon addition of mercury (Hg2+) to a solution of the probe, both a colorimetric change from colorless to yellow and a fluorescence change from blue to green (under a 365 nm hand-held UV lamp) occur, both of which can be observed using the "naked-eye". Furthermore, the probe possesses the capability of sensing intracellular mercury in both live cells and tissues using dual-emission channels and two-photon microscopy.
This study was supported financially by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2012R1A3A2048814 for J. Yoon and No. 2016R1E1A1A02920873 for H. M. Kim). The Korea Basic Science Institute (Western Seoul) is acknowledged for the LC/MS data. FAB mass spectral data were obtained from the Korea Basic Science Institute (Daegu) on a Jeol JMS 700 high resolution mass spectrometer.
