Thiophene aromatic amine derivatives with two-photon activities as probes for the detection of picric acid and pH

摘要

Sensors for explosive picric acid (PA) detection and intracellular pH monitoring have attracted significant attention. At present work, a series of fluorescent probes bearing two-photon activities (C1-C4) based on thiophene and aromatic amine were designed and synthesized. It was found that C3 can identify PA accompanied with the enhanced two-photon activities. Moreover, significant changes of fluorescent intensity were observed in a pH range of 6.0-8.5 for C3. Encouraged by the above properties, the potential applications were carried out for monitoring intracellular pH fluctuation in living cells benefiting from the small molecular weight and relatively low toxicity of C3.