A berberrubine-derived fluorescent probe for hydrazine and its practical application in water and food samples

Highlights: • A novel detector BER9-HZ for hydrazine detection in real samples. • Better solubility than Berberine and 615 nm Near-Infrared reporting signal. • Wide linear range, high sensitivity, steadiness in various environmental conditions, rapid response and high selectivity. • Working steadily in real environmental, plant, food samples and in living cells. In this work, we attempted to develop a fluorescent probe for hydrazine in real samples. Accordingly, we designed BER9-HZ to fulfill the set rules as solubility, anti-interference capability and functional compatibility. The selected reporting group BER9 dissolved 100% within 10 min, which indicated much better solubility than Berberine. The 615 nm reporting signal was in the Near-Infrared region. BER9-HZ presented advantages including wide linear range (0–20 equivalent), high sensitivity (detection limit 0.076 μM), steadiness (pH 7.0–13.0, temperature 25–45 °C), rapid response (within 20 min) and high selectivity in both independent and co-existing systems. Significantly, BER9-HZ could work steadily in real environmental, plant and food samples, thus be used in the detection of hydrazine (directly incubated or pre-treated with real sample) in living cells. Therefore, this work marched one step further to the systematic managing of hydrazine in real samples, and raised useful information for future investigations on Nitrogen circulation.