Abstract
It is very important to determine mercury owing to its complex biological poisonousness that could cause various physical diseases and even death. In this study, we designed a novel coumarin-based ratiometric fluorescent probe, CR-Hg, with DL-dithiothreitol moiety as the recognition receptor to detect mercury ions (Hg2+). CR-Hg could realize the quantitative detection of Hg2+ between 0 and 1.4 μM with low detection limit (1.6 nM). Furthermore, CR-Hg could react quickly with Hg2+ in a few seconds and accompanied by color changes from pale yellow to orange. In the end, the applications of CR-Hg in the water samples, living cells and zebrafish more deeply indicated that the probe could serve as a novel promising tool for revealing mercury distribution in the environment and organisms.
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•Probe CR-Hg is a colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescent probe for Hg2+.•CR-Hg could quantitatively and sensitively detect Hg2+ (DL = 1.6 nM).•CR-Hg could rapidly detect Hg2+ (within 5 s).•CR-Hg displayed prominent selectivity toward Hg2+ than other various species.•CR-Hg could be applied to determining Hg2+ in water samples, live cells and zebrafish.