Rational design of a FRET-based ratiometric fluorescent probe with large Pseudo-Stokes shift for detecting Hg2+ in living cells based on rhodamine and anthracene fluorophores

A new probe based on anthracene-xanthene dyes for detecting Hg2+ was designed and the detailed mechanism was researched systematically. [Display omitted] •A colorimetric and fluorometric probe 1 based on anthracene and xanthene was synthesized.•1 having highly selective recognition of Hg2+ by FRET mechanism.•The detection mechanism had been verified by NMR, ESI-MS, and HPLC spectra.•The probe can detect Hg2+ in living cells. The development of fluorescent dyes has been a continuing attractive research topic in the field of fluorescence sensing and bioimaging technologies, most of them were subject to a single signal change. In this work, a novel colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescent probe 1 based on rhodamine and anthracene groups was designed and synthesized via the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. Probe 1 showed excellent selectivity, higher sensitivity and ratiometric response to Hg2+ in the CH3CN/H2O (1/1, v/v) system, with a fast response time (less than 30 s); The fluorescent color changed from purple to orange and the solution visible to the naked-eye changed from colorless to pink. The Pseudo-Stokes shift was 174 nm upon addition of Hg2+. The limit of detection (LOD) was calculated to be 0.81 μM and 0.38 μM according to fluorescence and UV/vis measurements, respectively. Furthermore, a possible mechanism for the detection of Hg2+ by probe 1 was verified by using 1H NMR, ESI-MS, and HPLC spectra. Meanwhile, probe 1 was successfully used for cell imaging for the detection of Hg2+ in living cells.