Fluorescent Probes for the Detection of Hydrogen Sulfide in Biological Systems

Detective work: Three highly sensitive and selective fluorescent probes for the detection of H2S have been developed. Two of the probes detect H2S by the reduction of an azide moiety to an amine group, which changes the probes into their fluorescent forms and generates a fluorescent signal. In the third method, the fluorescent signal is created by using H2S as a nucleophile in a reaction that unmasks fluorescein.