A highly selective and sensitive turn-on fluorescent probe for the detection of Al3+ and its bioimaging.

A novel fluorescent sensor, 1-((2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl)methylene)urea ( ocn) has been designed and applied as a highly selective and sensitive fluorescent probe for recognition of Al³⁺ in Tris-HCl (pH = 7.20) solution. The probe ocn exhibits an excellent selectivity to Al³⁺ over other examined metal ions, anions and amino acids with a prominent fluorescence 'turn-on' at 438 nm. ocn binds to Al³⁺ with a 2:1 binding stoichiometry and the detection limit was 0.3 μM. Furthermore, its capability of biological application was evaluated and the results showed that the sensor could be used to detect Al³⁺ in living cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]