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Article: Applied chemistry.
- Article from:
- Chemistry and Industry
- Article date:
- January 10, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Society of Chemical Industry. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NIGEL FREESTONE, University College Northampton
Chemosensors, small abiotic molecules that signal the presence of analytes, usually consist of a recognition site that binds the target substrate and a readout system that signals when this binding occurs. In the case of metal ion sensors, the recognition site is a metal-chelating molecule designed to bind the target ion selectively, while the readout system is very often a fluorophore. The two components are usually covalently linked through a spacer. Complexation of the metal ion results in a variation of the position and/or intensity of the emission band of the fluorophore. With this set-up, a large number of ...