AUTHOR=Wang Xiao-Juan , Li Gao-Wei , Cheng Yi-Peng , Sun Qiu-Ling , Hao Yuan-Qiang , Wang Chen-Hong , Liu Lan-Tao 

TITLE=Design and Synthesis of Dipeptidomimetic Isocyanonaphthalene as Enhanced-Fluorescent Chemodosimeter for Sensing Mercury Ion and Living Cells

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2022.813108

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2022.813108

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>A novel valine-based isocyanonaphthalene (<bold>NpI</bold>) was designed and synthesized by using an easy method and enabled the selective fluorescence detection of Hg<sup>2+</sup>. The chemodosimeter can display an immediate turn-on fluorescence response (500-fold) towards target metal ions upon the Hg<sup>2+</sup>-mediated conversion of isocyano to amino within <bold>NpI</bold>. Based on this specific reaction, the fluorescence-enhancement probe revealed a high sensitivity toward Hg<sup>2+</sup> over other common metal ions and exhibited excellent aqueous solubility, good antijamming capability, high sensitivity (detection limit: 14.2 nM), and real-time detection. The response mechanism of <bold>NpI</bold> was supported by NMR spectroscopy, MS analysis and DFT theoretical calculation using various techniques. Moreover, a dipeptidomimetic <bold>NpI</bold> probe was successfully applied to visualize intracellular Hg<sup>2+</sup> in living cells and monitor Hg<sup>2+</sup> in real water samples with good recoveries and small relative standard deviations.</p>