Design, synthesis and photophysical studies of improved xanthene dye to detect acetate

[Display omitted] •Photophysics of a new fluorescent On/Off compound were studied.•The buffer mediated ESPT reaction has been deeply studied and the kinetic constant recovered.•Competitive studies with other anions present in blood were done.•This dye can be potentially used as acetate probe in blood samples. Development of biomarkers of analytes with interest in clinic is an important field of study. In this work, we synthesized and analyzed the new fluorescent acetate-biomarker, Iso-PG. The mechanism of detection is the acetate buffer mediated proton transfer reaction. The rate constants involved were obtained, and we measured the change in the fluorescence lifetime produced as a consequence of the presence of acetate in the medium. Finally, we checked its potential use as acetate biomarker in synthetic serum.