A novel dual-channel fluorescent probe for nitroxyl detection and its application in HepG-2 cells

•The first dual-channel NIR fluorescent probe for nitroxyl detection was obtained.•The probe showed the biggest Stock's shift.•Probe have rapid response (4 min), low detection limit and a wide range of pH.•The imaging in vitro and in vivo demonstrated its value of practical application. Intracellular nitroxyl (HNO) acts as an essential intermolecular signal to regulate a wide variety of physiological and pathological processes. Nondestructive detection of HNO in living cells is an urgent need for further study of its physiological activity. In this work, we have developed a new probe LJ-3 for HNO detection with simultaneous response in green and NIR channels. Probe LJ-3 exhibited fast, large Stock's shift and sensitive response to HNO along with a distinct fluorescence change with maximum emission peak at 520 and 673 nm. The limit of detection of probe LJ-3 for HNO was calculated to be 111.6 nM. Furthermore, imaging studies taken in HepG-2 cells showed that LJ-3 could be employed as a dual-channel fluorescent probe for endogenous HNO detection and imaging in living system.