A NIR fluorescent probe for the detection and visualization of hydrogen sulfide in colorectal cancer cell

Abstract Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) plays a significant role in many pathological and physiological processes in living system. It is of great importance to develop effective fluorescent probes for H2S detection with good sensitivity and high selectivity. In this work, we developed a new near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe DBT for H2S detection with fluorescence turn-on performance. For probe DBT, triphenylamine combined with BODIPY is used as the fluorophore and 2, 4-dinitrophenylsulfonyl group is acted as the reaction site. The results show that DBT exhibits excellent sensing characters toward H2S with rapid response (within 150 s), excellent sensitivity (detection limit of 6.74 nM) and good selectivity. Importantly, this probe is also successfully applied in the fluorescent imaging of endogenous H2S in HCT116 cells. The outcomes indicate that the probe DBT is a valuable tool for H2S detection in solution and living cells.