Metal chelating lipids which are useful as sensors in fluorometric methods for the detection of metal ions

摘要

An fluorescent metal-chelating amphiphile having the structure: <IMAGE> or <IMAGE> wherein A is a hydrophobic fluorophore, X and Y are aliphatic hydrocarbons having from 9 to 25 carbon atoms, B is a hydrophilic spacer, C is a metal chelator, and L is either an ether or ester linkage. The fluorescent metal-chelating amphiphile is combined with a matrix lipid to form lipid-based sensors which provide fluorometric detection of metal ions in liquids.