Rapid, portable and visualizing nitrite detection enabled by a rationally designed meso-aminoindole substituted pyronine-based fluorescent probe

[Display omitted] •Water-soluble red fluorescence probe was synthesized merely through one-step.•The probe shown a fast response (3 min) to nitrite with detection limit of 13.8 nM.•The probe can achieve nitrite detection in water and foods with satisficed results.•Test strips was developed for rapid (4 min), specific, visually nitrite detection.•A portable smart sensing platform can be made for on-site nitrite detecting. Nitrite (NO2−) widely exists in our daily diet, and its excessive consumption can lead to detrimental effects on the human central nervous system and an elevated risk of cancer. The fluorescence probe method for the determination of nitrite has developed rapidly due to its simplicity, rapidity and sensitivity. Despite establishing various nitrite sensing platforms to ensure the safety of foods and drinking water, the simultaneous achievement of rapid, specific, affordable, visualizing, and on-site nitrite detection remains challenging. Here, we designed a novel fluorescent probe by using Rhodamine 800 as the fluorescent skeleton and 5-aminoindole as the specific reaction group to solve this problem. The probe shows a maximal fluorescence emission at 602 nm, thereby avoiding background emission interference when applied to food samples. Moreover, this unique probe exhibited excellent sensing capabilities for detecting nitrite. These included: a rapid response time within 3 min, a noticeable color change that the naked eye can observe, a low detection limit of 13.8 nM, and a remarkable selectivity and specificity to nitrite. Besides that, the probe can detect nitrite quantitatively in barreled drinking water, ham sausage, and pickles samples, with good recoveries ranging from 89.0 % to 105.8 %. More importantly, based on the probe fixation and signal processing technology, a portable and smart sensing platform was fabricated and made convenient and rapid analysis the content of NO2− in real samples possible. The results obtained in this work provide a new strategy for the design of high-performance nitrite probes and feasible technology for portable, rapid and visual detection of nitrite, and this probe holds the potential as a practical tool for alleviating concern regarding nitrite levels.