A coumarin Schiff's base two-photon fluorescent probe for hypochlorite in living cells and zebrafish.

Selective and sensitive fluorescent probes for ClO are desirable due to the importance of ClO in biological processes. Here, a coumarin Schiff's base, compound 1, has been developed and successfully used as a one- and two-photon fluorescent probe for ClO with high selectivity. This probe can recognize ClO with obvious color change from yellow-green to colorless and green to blue fluorescence emission, which can be observed by the naked eye.