A Novel Dual Channel Fluorescent Probe for Ca2+ and Zn2+ Based on a Coumarin Schiff Base

A novel coumarin Schiff base fluorescent probe ethyl 7‐hydroxycoumarin‐3‐carboxylate‐8‐formaldehyde benzoyl hydrazone ( EBH ) has been designed and synthesized which shows solvent dependent dual sensing, viz., recognition of Ca²⁺ in DMF‐H₂O (9∶1, V /V ) solution based on C = N isomerization, photoinduced electron transfer (PET ) inhibition and chelation‐enhanced fluorescence (CHEF ) mechanism as well as detection of Zn²⁺ in H₂O‐CH₃OH (9∶1, V /V ) solution by excited‐state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT ) and CHEF processes. The structure of the probe EBH has been confirmed by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. Meanwhile, the probe was also used to image intracellular Zn²⁺ ions in MCF ‐7 cells with a good performance.