Ultrafast detection of bisulfite by a unique quinolinium-based fluorescent probe and its applications in smartphone-assisted food detection and bioimaging.

Sulfur dioxide (SO ₂ ) is one of the major pollutants in the atmosphere, which is highly susceptible to inhalation by the human body and is converted into its derivatives (HSO ₃ ^- /SO ₃ ^2- ), which is hazardous to both human health and the ecological environment. Therefore the detection of SO ₂ derivatives (HSO ₃ ^- /SO ₃ ^2- ) is very important. In this work, we have prepared ID-QL, a water-soluble fluorescent probe based on the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism, it exhibits colorimetric and fluorescent dual-channel response to HSO ₃ ^- with ultrafast, highly selective and sensitive detection. In particular, ID-QL can be used for quantitative detection of HSO ₃ ^- in real food samples. We developed a portable test strip for ID-QL and successfully combined it with smartphone to achieve convenient, low-cost and portable detection of HSO ₃ ^- in real samples. The probe displays good mitochondrial targeting ability and can be used for visual monitoring and imaging of sulfites in live cells and zebrafish.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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