Nitroxyl is a highly reactive compound that irreversibly dimerizes and subsequently dehydrates to yield nitrous oxide and water, making its direct detection in cells or in vivo difficult. In this paper, a novel fluorescent probe 1 based on the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) mechanism for the detection of nitroxyl was developed for the first time. It consists of 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)-benzothiazole as the fluorophore, linked via an ester moiety to a diphenylphosphinobenzoyl group. The probe exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity toward nitroxyl in the presence of b...
