A novel fluorescent probe based on triphenylamine for detecting sulfur dioxide derivatives

According to the nucleophilicity of sulfur dioxide derivatives, a reactive fluorescent probe was designed and synthesized by linking triphenylamine with benzoindole. When the probe reacts with sulfur dioxide derivatives, the two fluorophores of the probe are disconnected to release strong blue fluorescence, and the fluorescence signal at 475 nm is significantly enhanced. The probe can rapidly identify sulfur dioxide derivatives (within 300 s), and has the advantages of strong selectivity and low detection limit (2.75 × 10⁻⁶ M). The probe with low toxicity can be used to detect sulfur dioxide derivatives in HepG-2 cells. In addition, detection test paper and silica functional materials prepared based on the probe also achieved excellent results in the detection of sulfur dioxide derivatives, which provides a potential direction for the further commercialization of the probe.