An ATP-selective, lanthanide complex luminescent probe.

A luminescent probe based on a europium complex is developed, which effectively distinguishes adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and adenosine monophosphate (AMP) in pure water at pH 6.8. With a longer lifetime (in ms range), the probe is prospectively applied to biological systems to monitor ATP levels by completely removing the background fluorescence of other molecules.