The detection sensitivity of commonly used singlet oxygen probes in aqueous environments

The sensitivity for singlet oxygen (1O2) of two convenient 1O2 probes, 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) and 9,10-Anthracenediyl-bis(methylene)dimalonic acid (ABDA), has been investigated in different aqueous environments. Both probes are commercially available at reasonable cost and can be used with standard UV-vis spectrometers. Although DPBF is not soluble in neat water and is not specific to the detection of 1O2, it has very high, essentially diffusion-limited, reactivity towards 1O2; it can trap up to 50% of all 1O2 created in alcohol/water or micellar solution, and even more when replacing H2O by D2O, which makes it highly useful when the process under investigation does not yield much 1O2. On the other hand, ABDA has a much lower reactivity, reacting with only 2% of the singlet oxygen generated in H2O, as well as a smaller extinction coefficient, resulting in a much smaller spectroscopic response, but is soluble in neat water and is specific for 1O2, allowing for discrimination from other reactive oxygen species. The results presented here not only allow a comparative assessment of the usefulness of the two 1O2 probes, but also provide a reference for an accurate absolute quantification of the amount of 1O2 generated in an experiment from the observed absorbance bleach.