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A new luminescent lanthanide complex senses anions at physiological pH (Chem. Commun., DOI: 10.1039/b611487c). The sensor, developed by Joseph P. Leonard, Thorfinnur Gunnlaugsson, and coworkers at Trinity College Dublin, is a highly pH-dependent assembly (shown) of a heptadentate europium(III) complex and a β-diketonate. At pH 7.4, the assembly's fluorescence emission, due to Eu(III), is red. In acid or alkaline solutions, the assembly dissociates, the Eu(III) emission is quenched, and the diketonate's blue emission is observed. Biologically important anions, such as bicarbonate and lactate, bind more strongly than the diketonate to the Eu(III) complex. When these anions are added to an aqueous solution of the assembly at pH 7.4, they displace the diketonate and switch off the red Eu(III) emission. Under UV light, the luminescence changes are visible to the naked eye.
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