A Ratiometric Fluorescent Detection Platform Using G‐CDs@[Ru(bpy)₃]²⁺ for the Specific Detection of Hypochlorite and Live Cell Imaging

Abstract

Hypochlorite (ClO−), an essential reactive oxygen species (ROS) in physiological processes, is identified to be closely connected with oxidative stress and related diseases. Meanwhile, ClO− is a commonly‐used disinfector for water treatment, and in public places, under acidic conditions, it's easily decomposed into hypertoxic chlorine gas. Since the strong oxidizing property of ClO−, many oxidizing agents may disturb the ClO− detection. Specific and accurate detection of ClO− with superior sensitivity is a challenge. In this work, a sensing platform for rapid, sensitive, and specific ClO− detection is constructed using green fluorescent carbon dots (G‐CDs), with a linear detection range of 0.5–11 µm and a detection limit of 0.233 µm. Moreover, introducing a red fluorescent tripyridinium ruthenium ([Ru(bpy)3]2+) as a reference, a ratiometric fluorescence nanoprobe G‐CDs@[Ru(bpy)3]2+ is prepared and shows favorable intracellular imaging of exogenous and endogenous ClO−. With G‐CDs@[Ru(bpy)3]2+‐based test paper microarrays and a color recognition APP, a smartphone‐based sensing system for point‐of‐care testing of ClO− is also fabricated. In summary, this work proposed a versatile and economical smartphone‐based sensing system that featured reliability and simplicity, and suggested its potential applications in environmental water quality monitoring and live cell imaging.