A conveniently prepared and hypersensitized small molecular fluorescent probe: Rapidly detecting free zinc ion in HepG2 cells and Arabidopsis

In this paper, we reported a conveniently prepared fluorescent probe for zinc ions detection, which constructed by the condensation reaction between p-(benzothiazolyl)aniline with 4, 4- diethylaminesalicylaldehyde. The sensing ability of the probe toward zinc ions in vitro was tested by a series of UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy studies, which showed that the probe possessed high sensitivity with a detection limit of 5.8nM and a rapid response time of 10s. We also carried out fluorescent bio-imaging of the probe for zinc ions in human liver hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2), which showed that the probe could be utilized to detect the intracellular endogenous zinc ions visually without introducing external zinc sources. Meanwhile, co-staining experiment with organelle selective trackers was performed to illustrate that the probe could locate at endoplasmic reticulum. Finally, we successfully used it as a zinc ion developer in plant tissue, which clearly demonstrated the distribution of zinc ions in the growth stage of plant tissue. [Display omitted] •The synthesis of the probe was very convenient and response time was short.•The limit of detection of probe was calculated as low as 5.8nM for Zn2+.•The probe could be unitized to detect zinc ions visually in the intracellular endogenous and Arabidopsis tissues.