Sensing of Phosphate and ATP by Lanthanide Complexes in Aqueous Medium and Its Application on Living Cells

Abstract

Abstract The design of coordination complexes as synthetic receptors for selective sensing of inorganic anions and nucleoside phosphates in aqueous medium under physiological conditions are important for biomedical research and drug delivery. In this work, two phenanthroline‐based luminescent lanthanide complexes; EuLCl 3 ( 1 ) and TbLCl 3 ( 2 ), were explored for sensing anions such as HPO 4 2− , SO 4 2− , CH 3 COO − , I − , Br − , Cl − , F − , NO 3 − and HSO 4 − with HPO 4 2− exhibiting the strongest emission. Nucleoside phosphates such as ATP, ADP and AMP could be also detected. Both complexes 1 and 2 are highly selective sensing ATP at physiological pH. The detection limit and their corresponding Stern‐Volmer quenching constant were calculated for ATP as in the range of 0.2 μM–1 mM and 2.0×10 6 M −1 . Complex 1 was applied as a staining agent to study alga cells ( Microspora unialgal filamentous cell). The result shows that the ligand L causes a severe cytotoxic effect and induces the cell damage.