A new visible light excitable fluorescent probe (1) is synthesized by appending a hydroxymethyl-pyridine to rhodamine B hydrazide. The probe displays very specific Hg2+-induced colour change and fluorescent enhancement in the aqueous systems. The "turn-on" response of fluorescence is based on a binding-induced ring-opening process from the spirolactam (nonfluorescent) to acyclic xanthene (fluorescent) in rhodamine B. The coordinating atoms O-center dot-N-N-O-center dot from the hydroxymethyl-pyridine and rhodamine B hydrazide play dominant role in the formation of a complex with 1:1 stoichiometry of Hg2+ to 1. It exhibits a linear response in the range of 0.1-5 mu M with the limit of detection (LOD) of 15.7 nM (3 sigma/slope), while the calculated value of the association constant of Hg2+/1 is 0.70 x 10(5) M-1. Furthermore, confocal microscopy imaging experiment demonstrates the probe 1 can be applied as afluorescent probe for visualization of Hg2+ in living HeLa cells. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.