Recent Advances in Nanomaterial-based Luminescent ATP Sensors

Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) plays a significant role in biological processes and the ATP level is closely associated with many diseases. In order to detect ATP in live cells, tissues, and body fluids with high sensitivity and selectivity, researchers have developed various sensing strategies. Particularly, owing to the distinct physicochemical properties of nanomaterials and the high sensitivity of fluorescence, a lot of efforts have been devoted to developing nanomaterials-based approaches for fluorescent ATP sensing in recent years. In this review, we focus on the current development of nanomaterial-based fluorescent ATP sensors and discuss the sensing mechanisms in detail. The advantages and disadvantages of ATP sensing using different kinds of nanomaterials, including carbon nanomaterials, metal nanoparticles, semiconductor quantum dots, metal-organic frameworks, and up-conversion nanoparticles have been thoroughly compared and discussed. Finally, current challenges and future prospects in this field are examined.