1.School of Printing and Packaging Engineering, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, Beijing 102600, China
2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
3. Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
While copper is a vital element for life and the third most abundant element in the body after iron and zinc, too much copper can harm the neurological system and red blood cells. As a result, the detection of copper ions has received increasing interest in the biomedical and environmental fields. Fluorescence probes, one of the techniques for detecting copper ions, have the advantages of being simple to use, highly sensitive, and applicable to both environmental and cellular detection. They can also be used to realize realtime bioimaging by dynamically labeling copper ions in cells and organisms, and offer a wealth of opportunities for further research and development. We describe the molecular structure and performance of the copper ion pairs of probes, classify such fluorescent probes according to the various recognition mechanisms of copper ions, summarize the research progress of fluorescent probes for copper ion detection in recent years, and suggest further optimization of the luminescence properties and detection limits of the copper ion fluorescent probes.