An indicator displacement system for fluorescent detection of phosphate oxyanions under physiological conditions

A fluorogenic chemosensing system is described and shown to selectively detect pyrophosphate under physiological conditions. In the best case, pyrophosphate and hydrogen phosphate are capable of displacing a fluorescent coumarin-derived indicator from a bis Zn2+-dipicolylamine coordination compound with association constants of 107 and 105 M−1, respectively.