An effective fluorescent sensor for ClO in aqueous media based on thiophene-cyanostilbene Schiff-base.

Although some reports on sensing ClO had been presented, the ClO sensor with high selectivity and sensitivity in aqueous media was still expected. Herein, an effective fluorescent sensor for ClO in aqueous media was designed and synthesized by simple procedure based on cyanostilbene derivative (TCS). TCS exhibited strong fluorescence in aqueous media, which could be selectively quenched by ClO among various species. The detection limit was as low as 3.2 × 10 M. The sensing mechanism of the oxidation of sulfur in thiophene unit was confirmed by the FT-IR spectrum, fluorescence Job's plot, H NMR spectrum and MS spectrum. This sensor was successfully applied on detecting ClO in real sample and living-cell imaging, suggesting its potential application for sensing ClO in both vitro assay and vivo environment.