A highly selective colorimetric probe for fast and sensitive detection of hypochlorite in absolute aqueous solution

Recently, growing attention has been paid to the selective and sensitive detection of hypochlorite anion (ClO−) because of its important roles in biological systems. Although great progress has been made in fluorescent probe for tracking of ClO− in living cells to figure out its biological function and pathogenic mechanism, simple and convenient tools for the detection and determination of ClO− in water and other ClO− used field are rarely exploited. In this article, we developed a simple water-soluble tricyanoethylene-derived colorimetric probe 1 for the fast and sensitive detection of ClO− in absolute aqueous solution by the naked-eye. Probe 1 exhibited an excellent selectivity toward ClO− for the strong oxidative property of ClO− to the strong electron deficient CC bond. Additionally, probe 1 could detect ClO− quantitatively in the range of 0–120 μM with the detection limit of 4 μM. We highlight the simplicity of the design and synthesis, yet its combined properties, such as high specificity, excellent sensitivity, good water-solubility, fast response, higher molar extinction coefficient, and visual determination, and anticipate that this probe would be of great benefit to analytical researchers for monitoring the ClO− levels in the environment.