A highly selective and sensitive fluorescent turn-on sensor for Hg2+ and its application in live cell imaging.

A boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) derivative containing a tridentate diaza-oxa ligand (8H-BDP) was synthesized as a fluorescent turn-on chemosensor for Hg(2+) with high sensitivity (detection limit < or = 2 ppb), a rapid response time (< or = 5 seconds) and specific selectivity over other cations under physiological conditions and in live cells according to the confocal fluorescence microscopy experiment.