Mercury ion (Hg2+) has hindered society to some extent due to its high biological toxicity, and a rapid method for Hg2+ detection is urgently needed. In the present work, two fluorescent probes, YF-Hg and YF-Cl-Hg, were developed. YF-Cl-Hg was produced by introducing an electron-withdrawing substituent -Cl into the structure of YF-Hg. The probe YF-Cl-Hg possesses a larger Stokes shift and a more pronounced UV-vis absorption redshift compared to YF-Hg in a pH=7.4 environment. The reasons for the superior spectral performance of YF-Cl-Hg over YF-Hg were explored by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. Furthermore, the good biocompatibility suggests that YF-Cl-Hg possesses the potential to be a tool for Hg2+ detection in cells.

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