Quantitative detection of L-cysteine with a ratiometric probe combined with smartphone imaging and fluorescent test strips

•A ratiometric probe for the quantitative detection of L-Cys was prepared.•Detecting L-Cys with high sensitivity (0.32 μM) and fast response time (90 s).•Smartphone fluorescence imaging and fluorescent test strips. Cysteine is an important thiol involved in the vital activities of the human body, and many physiological processes in the body are associated with it. Accurate detection of cysteine is of great importance in monitoring the development of diseases. In this paper, we prepared a ratiometric flavonoid fluorescent probe, HDFA, that exhibits specific selectivity for L-cysteine. HDFA was the first fluorescent probe that can distinguish between L-cysteine and D-cysteine. When detecting L-cysteine, the fluorescence color changed from blue to yellow, and the fluorescence quantum yield increased from 16.96 % to 21.30 %. The probe has a short response time (90 s) to L-cysteine, a large Stokes shift (186 nm), good selectivity, and anti-interference, and the detection limit was 0.32 μM. The detection mechanism was confirmed by mass spectrometry. In addition, HDFA has good applications in cell imaging, smartphone fluorescence imaging and fluorescence test strip detection. [Display omitted]