Development of diselenide-based fluorogenic system for the selective and sensitive detection of the Hg(ii) in aqueous media†

Mercury(II) is highly toxic thus the selective and sensitive detection of Hg(II) is important. This research article deals with the synthesis and characterization of the fluorogenic system based on diselenide containing rhodamine by single crystal XRD. The probe has been used for selective detection of Hg(II) in aqueous media with detection limit of 62.3 nM. The reaction of the Hg(II) with the probe induces opening of the spirolactam ring triggering fluorescence turn-on response. This reaction causes color change of the probe solution from colorless to pink. In addition, the probe showed the reversible binding behavior with Hg(II) and S²⁻. The effectiveness of the probe was evaluated using prostate cancer cell line through live cell imaging.