By introducing a palladium ion into the backbone of BODIPY, we devised a cyclopalladated BODIPY construct that was almost non-emissive in the absence of any analyte but became highly fluorescent upon interacting with carbon monoxide (CO) in solution and in living cells. A process of ortho-carbonylation and depalladation mediated by the specific binding of CO to palladium, promoted the release of the heavy atom from the fluorophore and consequently generated a fluorescence signal with an exceptionally high (60-fold) enhancement ratio.
