A novel reaction‐based colorimetric fluorescent probe based on phenothiazine for the detection of hypochlorite in real samples

Hypochlorous acid and its ionic form (ClO − ) play a key role in biological processes as representative reactive oxygen species (ROS). A novel hypochlorite‐selective fluorescent “turn‐on” probe PTZ‐DCM‐S was created by covalent bonding between the phenothiazine and the dicyanomethyl‐4H‐pyran units. After adding ClO − , the probe PTZ‐DCM‐S solution's fluorescence significantly increased, changing its appearance from practically colorless to brilliant yellow. Probe PTZ‐DCM‐S also showed significant fluorescence amplification, a rapid response time (10 s), and a low detection limit (DL) of 0.13 μM. Moreover, the developed fluorescent molecule was used successfully to analyze ClO − in real samples.