Exploration of congeneric Hg(II)-mediated chemosensors driven by S-Hg affinity, and their application in living system.

Three congeneric fluorescent sensors that utilize Rhodamine B were developed for the detection of mercury (II) ions. This series of sensors are functionalized by various differently substituted cinnamyl aldehyde, with C N Schiff base and C S structural motif as their core segment. The performance of these sensors adjusted by steric hindrance were investigated by absorption and fluorescence spectrum, and illuminated, summarized and confirmed using DFT calculations by frontier orbital theory and Fukui- function. In addition, living cell and living mice imaging demonstrated that all the sensors could serve as a potential fluorescent agent for quantitative mercury (II) ion imaging in living organism. The obvious morphology change reveal that the coordination of HgCl 2 upon these sensors may have a great influence on the material performance to a certain extent. This approach provides a significant strategy for studying structure-property relationships and guiding the synthesis of sensors with various optical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]