A rhodamine derivative as selective fluorescent and colorimetric chemosensor for mercury (II) in buffer solution, test strips and living cells

In this paper, we reported a new rhodamine derivative bearing 2,4-dichloroquinazoline as a selective fluorescent chemosensor for Hg2+. The ring-opening process of spirolactam enabled the large fluorescent enhancement and calorimetric change by Hg2+ induced configuration transformation of the rhodamine. Moreover, the fluorescence changes of the chemosensor were dramatically specific for Hg2+ in the presence of other metal ions, which could meet the selective requirements for practical application. Under optimized experimental conditions, the linear response range covered the concentration range of Hg2+ from 0 to 1.0 x 10(-6) M, and the limit of detection was calculated to be 2.7 x 10(-8) M. In addition, the probe was also successfully applied to the determination of Hg2+ in water samples, test strips and living cells. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.