Towards novel biolabels: synthesis of a tagged highly fluorescent Schiff-base aluminium complex

Starting from 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propanoic acid, formylation ortho to the phenol and condensation with ortho-aminophenol gave a novel functionalised Schiff-base ligand. Formation of the N-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester and non-aqueous complexation with AlEt2Cl gave a novel fluorescent biolabel displaying a Stokes shift of 100 nm. The efficacy of the new system was demonstrated by its attachment to rabbit IgG. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.