Abstract
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•Pyrrolidin-3-formate ester was firstly used as regenerated recognition site of HCHO.•This probe has high selectivity and sensitivity toward HCHO.•This regenerated probe can detect HCHO in zebrafish without the disturbance of HCHO level.•This probe has the ability to detect HCHO in food samples.
As an important carbonyl substance, formaldehyde (FA) plays an important role in transmitting information and maintaining homeostasis in the body. However, once the body consumes a large amount food added with FA, it will lead to the accumulation of FA in the organism, thereby causing a variety of diseases. Therefore, it is extremely important to ensure the balance of FA concentration in organisms and to detect FA in food samples. In this paper, a regenerative FA fluorescence probe CE-FA was constructed based on the ability of pyrrolidin-3-formate ester to capture FA. After the probe reacts with FA, it causes ester alcoholysis, releases fluorophore to enhance the fluorescence signal, and realizes the regeneration of FA at the same time. There was a good linear relationship between the fluorescence intensity of the probe and the concentration of FA, and the detection limit was 2.6 μM. The probe can be used for both endogenous and exogenous imaging applications of FA in zebrafish. In addition, the probe can also be used to detect FA in food samples and has good recovery rate. We hope that the probe can provide an effective tool for the study of the functionalization of FA in living organisms and the detection of FA in food samples.