Rhodamine-modified upconversion nanoprobe for distinguishing Cu2+ from Hg2+ and live cell imaging

摘要: It is greatly important to seek a fast and sensitive method for the detection of Cu2+ ions because their vital role in human body. Fluorescent probes, especially rhodamine derivatives, have been considered as promising candidates due attractive features. However, one problem frequently encountered rhodamine-based fluorescent probes that some them could not distinguish from Hg2+ these drawbacks limit application biological samples. In this paper, B derivative (RBH) was grafted mesoporous silica coated upconversion nanoparticles (CS-UCNP) fabricate new organic–inorganic hybrid nanoprobe. On addition ions, an emission band at about 580 nm appeared while intensity green 545 nanoprobe decreased upon excitation 980 laser, implying luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) happened CS-UCNP RBH–Cu2+ complex. The obtained LRET detect exclusively even presence with 0.82 μM absolute ethanol solution. Most importantly, can be used monitoring subcellular distribution living cells based on downconversion fluorescence.