An AIE-based ratiometric fluorescent probe for reversible detection of bisulfite and hydrogen peroxide and its application in food samples and biological imaging.

[Display omitted] • A colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescent probe TPA-Y with AIE characteristic has been developed; • TPA-Y exhibits a large emission peak separation up to 185 nm and gives low LOD (47.1 nM) for bisulfite; • Quantitative detection of bisulfite in food samples (sugar and red wine) was achieved; • TPA-Y can reversible response to HSO 3 -/H 2 O 2 cycles and cell imaging. Reversible detection of bisulfite (HSO 3 -) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) is highly desirable in biology and food safety owing to their redox pair function in biological systems and their utilization in food industry. In this work, a ratiometric fluorescent probe (TPA-Y) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties based on triphenylamine fluorophore was designed and synthesized for reversibly monitoring of HSO 3 -/H 2 O 2. Reaction of HSO 3 - with TPA-Y can result in ratiometric fluorescence changes (I 444 / I 629), and the emission spectrum blue shift reaches 185 nm, which can effectively avoid spectral overlap. Meanwhile, the solution color changed obviously from orange to colorless, enabling naked eye detection of HSO 3 -. TPA-Y was capable of quantitatively detect HSO 3 - in sugar and wine samples with the recovery rates ranging from 94.52 to 102.18%. In addition, TPA-Y is suitable to prepare paper strips and anti-counterfeiting ink for HSO 3 - detection. In addition, the original TPA-Y can be released after the addition product (TPA-Y-HSO 3 -) is oxidized by H 2 O 2 , and the HSO 3 -/H 2 O 2 redox cycle can repeat for at least six times. The probe TPA-Y can be applied to fluorescence imaging of reversible and dynamic interconversion between HSO 3 - and H 2 O 2 in living MCF-7 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]