A highly selective and sensitive turn‐on fluorescent probe for the detection of Al³⁺ and its bioimaging

Abstract

A novel fluorescent sensor, 1-((2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl)methylene)urea (ocn) has been designed and applied as a highly selective and sensitive fluorescent probe for recognition of Al in Tris-HCl (pH = 7.20) solution. The probe ocn exhibits an excellent selectivity to Al over other examined metal ions, anions and amino acids with a prominent fluorescence 'turn-on' at 438 nm. ocn binds to Al with a 2:1 binding stoichiometry and the detection limit was 0.3 μM. Furthermore, its capability of biological application was evaluated and the results showed that the sensor could be used to detect Al in living cells.