Rhodamine-based fluorescent probe is widely used in chemical analysis, environmental analysis and life sciences area due to their excellent optical properties. Based on the thiophilic property of Hg~(2+), using C = S structural motif as the core segment, our group have designed and synthesized three novel probes containing cinnamyl aldehyde with different substituents, exhibiting high selectivity and excellent sensitivity. The structure-property relationships of these probes have been investigated that the optical change caused by electron withdrawing effect and heavy atom effect. Furthermore, these Hg~(2+) probes could be applied in living mice imaging, which provide a promising tool for quantitative mercury(Ⅱ) ion imaging in living organism. Based on the thiophilic property of Hg 2+, using C = S structural motif as the core segment, our group have designed and synthesized three novel probes containing cinnamyl aldehyde with different substituents, exhibiting high selectivity and excellent sensitivity. The structure-property relationships of these probes have been investigated that the optical change caused by electron withdrawing effect and heavy atom effect. Hg ~ (2+) probes could be applied in living mice imaging, which provide a promising tool for quantitative mercury (II) ion imaging in living organisms.