Design and Synthesis of a Ruthenium(II) Complex-Based Luminescent Probe for Highly Selective and Sensitive Luminescence Detection of Nitric Oxide

Nitric oxide (NO) is one of the most important intercellular signaling molecules, and plays important roles in various biological systems. In this work, a unique Ru^II complex, tris[(5-(4-methylamino-3-aminobenzylamino)-1,10-phenanthroline)] ruthenium(II) hexafluorophosphate [Ru(MAA-phen)₃][PF₆]₂, has been designed and synthesized as a luminescent probe for the detection of NO in aqueous media. The complex itself is almost non-luminescent, but can specifically react with NO under the aerobic conditions to afford its highly luminescent triazole derivative in aqueous media, [Ru(MTA-phen)₃]²⁺ (MTA-phen: methyl-trazolebenzylamino-1,10-phenanthroline), accompanied by a 302-fold increase in luminescence intensity at 598 nm with a 130 nm Stokes shift. The luminescence response of [Ru(MAA-phen)₃]²⁺ to NO is rapid, highly specific without interferences of other reactive oxygen/nitrogen species, and highly stable against the pH changes in the range of pH 4.5–9.5. These features enable [Ru(MAA-phen)₃]²⁺ to be used as a probe for the highly selective and sensitive luminescence detection of NO in weakly acidic, neutral, and weakly basic media.