A highly-sensitive fluorescent probe for the detection of copper ions and its applications in water quality monitoring, neural cell imaging and plant imaging.

High copper levels pose a risk to environmental and human health due to their toxicity and widespread industrial application, in which abnormal copper levels are associated with various diseases both in neurodegenerative diseases and plant growth. Thus, a turn-on fluorescent probe BBYD-Cu, based on donor-acceptor type structure, was designed and synthesized with easy preparations. BBYD-Cu can specifically recognized Cu²⁺ by 2-picolinic ester group, then released the fluorophore to enhance the fluorescent signals. With a detection limit of 31 nM, it displays extremely sensitive and precise Cu²⁺ detection. In addition, BBYD-Cu has the advantages of fast response speed (within 3 min), excellent selectivity and strong anti-interference ability for Cu²⁺. Significantly, the BBYD-Cu demonstrates superior detection and imaging performance even in intricate real-world environmental samples, biological nerve cells and plant soybean sprout root tissue.