Owing to the predominance of dopamine (DA) in controlling
mental
health, planning an innovative method for DA detection with simplicity
and high efficacy is conducive to the assessment of neurological disorders.
Herein, an efficient fluorogenic tactic has been elaborated for ultrasensitive
detection of DA with remarkably enhanced turn-on response. Utilizing
a twisted intramolecular charge-transfer (TICT)-suppressing strategy,
a highly emissive azocine derivative 11-hydroxy-2,3,6,7,11,12,13,14-octahydro-1H,5H,10H-11,14a-methanoazocino[5′,4′:4,5]furo[2,3-f]pyrido[3,2,1-ij]quinolin-10-one (J-Aza) is generated via a one-step reaction between DA and
8-hydroxyjulolidine. It is marvelous that J-Aza not only
possesses ideal fluorescence quantum yield (ΦF) as
high as 0.956 but also exhibits bathochromic shifted fluorescence
(green emissive) and stronger anti-photobleaching capacity superior
to traditional azocine-derived 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-5H-4,11a-methanobenzofuro[2,3-d]azocin-5-one (Aza) with moderate ΦF, blue fluorescence,
and poor photostability. By confining the TICT process, the detection
limit to DA can be reduced to 80 pM, which is competitive in contrast
to previously reported fluorescence methods. Encouraged by the instant
response (within 90 s), wide linear range (0.1–500 nM), great
selectivity, and excellent sensitivity, this fluorogenic method has
been used for the real-time measurement of DA contents in practical
urine samples with satisfactory results. Furthermore, the cerebral
DA level in the reserpine-induced depression rat model has also been
evaluated by our designed method, demonstrating its potent analytical
applicability in the biosensing field.