A red emitting fluorescent probe for instantaneous sensing of thiophenol in both aqueous medium and living cells with a large Stokes shift

A novel red emitting fluorescent probe for the detection of thiophenol in aqueous medium has been developed. This probe displays an instantaneous response (within seconds) and reaches a plateau within 2 min. It also exhibits a 129 nm Stokes shift and a low detection limit (8.2 nM, based on S/N = 3) in detecting thiophenol. Furthermore, the practical utility of this probe for the selective detection of thiophenol has been successfully demonstrated in both real water samples and living cells.