Salicylic-acid derivatives as antennae for ratiometric luminescent probes based on lanthanide complexes.

Long-lived ratiometric sensors: Luminescent lanthanide complexes are widely used in time-resolved assays of biomolecules, but most of the sensors with these complexes rely on single-point intensity measurements. Herein, we introduce a simple strategy to create ratiometric probes by using salicylic-acid derivatives as the antenna moiety of Tb(3+) complexes. As an example, a probe for alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was developed (see scheme).