Sensitive and selective fluorescent probe for hypochlorite in 100% aqueous solution and its application for lysosome-targetable cell imaging

A morpholine-functionalized pyrrole-cyanine probe was synthesized via a simple condensation reaction in high yield. This probe exhibits high selectivity toward ClO− on fluorescence and UV–vis spectra in neat aqueous solution. The strong green emission of the probe solution was quenched and the yellow color faded immediately upon the addition of ClO−. The detection limit of the probe for ClO− was 0.165 μM. The mechanism of hypochlorite-induced C C breakage was supposed on the basis of EIS-MS, NMR, and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Finally, the probe was utilized to image ClO− in lysosomes of living cells.