A turn-on fluorescent probe for palladium(II) detection with a large Stokes shift and lysosomes-targeting ability

Although a number of palladium(II) probes have been developed, most of them have small Stokes shifts and lack good subcellular targeting ability. In this paper, a reaction-based probe (DCF-MPYM-Pd) has been designed and synthesized for palladium(II) detection. The probe was constructed by a fluorescein derivative as the fluorophore and an allyl ester group as the recognition group. The probe exhibited fast response time (5 min), high sensitivity and specificity. Importantly, it has a large Stokes shift and lysosomal targeting capability. In addition, it was demonstrated that the probe can be used to sense palladium(II) in living cells and can accumulate specifically in lysosomes.