A Resumable Fluorescent Probe BHN-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) Hybrid Nanostructure for Fe(3+) and its Application in Bioimaging

A multifunctional fluorescent probe BHN-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) nanostructure for Fe(3+) was designed and developed. It has a good selective response to Fe(3+) with fluorescence quenching and can be recycled using an external magnetic field. With adding EDTA (2.5 × 10(−5) M) to the consequent product Fe(3+)-BHN-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2), Fe(3+) can be removed from the complex, and its fluorescence probing ability recovers, which means that this constituted on-off type fluorescence probe could be reversed and reused. At the same time, the probe has been successfully applied for quantitatively detecting Fe(3+) in a linear mode with a low limit of detection 1.25 × 10(−8) M. Furthermore, the BHN-Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) nanostructure probe is successfully used to detect Fe(3+) in living HeLa cells, which shows its great potential in bioimaging detection. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s11671-017-2392-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.