Formaldehyde (FA), a simple reactive carbonyl molecule, is endogenously produced in the cell at various physiological condition. At elevated level, FA causes severe cell toxicity as well as damage in macromolecules such proteins and DNA. For detecting FA in living cell, we identify a small but effective fluorescent turn on probe comprising single benzene-based orothophenylenediamine compound. Further study reveals that carboxylic group in orothophenylenediamine plays the important role in enhancing fluorescent signal than another electron withdrawing group. It is even interesting to observe the occurrence of fluorescent enhancement in glutathione (GSH) environment which is generally abundant in every cell. Our probe enables to detect FA over other bio-analytes efficiently with limit of detection of 123 nM and 355-fold of enhancement in cellular mimicking conditions. Moreover, this probe could be useful in discriminating cell that has high concentration of FA as well as GSH.

甲醛（FA）是一种简单的反应性羰基分子，在各种生理条件下会在细胞内源性产生。在升高的水平下，FA会引起严重的细胞毒性以及大分子蛋白质和DNA损伤。为了检测活细胞中的FA，我们确定了一个小的但有效的荧光开启探针，该探针包含单个基于苯的邻苯二甲胺化合物。进一步的研究表明，原邻苯二胺中的羧基在增强荧光信号方面比另一个吸电子基团更重要。甚至在谷胱甘肽（GSH）环境中观察到荧光增强现象的发生甚至很有趣，这种情况通常在每个细胞中都丰富。我们的探针能够比其他生物分析物更有效地检测甲醛，在细胞模拟条件下的检出限为123 nM和增强355倍。此外，该探针可用于区分具有高浓度甲醛和GSH的细胞。