A water-soluble cyclometalated iridium(III) complex with fluorescent sensing capability for hypochlorite

Herein, a novel cyclometalated iridium (III) complex (Ir-1) with good water-solubility was designed and synthesized to sensitively detect.hypochlorite (ClO-) in aqueous buffer solution. The sensor Ir-1 was prepared by incorporating a methacrylate group into cyclometalated ligands, which was a specific response site toward ClO- through an oxidation process. Ir-1 displayed strong emission at 615 nm, while significant fluorescence quenching was observed upon addition of ClO- with a low detection limit of 0.41 mu M. Moreover, probe Ir-1 exhibited a rapid response ( < 30 s) for ClO- with high selectivity over potentially competing species. The sensing process was evidenced by NMR and MS characterization. Further application in bioimaging of ClO- was successfully performed in living HepG2 cells.