Reporter compounds based on aromatic and heterocyclic compounds, including intermediates used to synthesize the reporter compounds, and methods of synthesizing and using the reporter compounds, where the reporter compounds generally have the structure:
where at least one pair of adjacent substituents (R
a
, R
b
), (R
b
, R
c
), (R
c
, R
d
), (R
d
, R
e
), (R
e
, R
f
), (R
f
, R
a
) is either a substituted cyclic or polycyclic group; or at least one set of three substituents (R
a
, R
b
, R
c
), (R
b
, R
c
, R
d
), (R
c
, R
d
, R
e
), (R
d
, R
e
, R
f
), (R
e
, R
f
, R
a
) is a substituted cyclic or polycyclic group.
Methods of performing assays with long lifetime compounds are disclosed. The long lifetime compounds have a lifetime of 4 ns or longer and relate to the structure:
Linked reactive groups or conjugated substances may generally be located at R
a
, R
b
, or R
c
. Adjacent substituents R
a
and R
b
may form a substituted, 5- or 6-membered heterocyclic group with one ring nitrogen. R
e
and R
f
may both be H, R
e
may be a sulfo group, or adjacent substituents R
e
and R
f
may form a cyclic ring structure. The long lifetime compounds contain at least one sulfo group and at least one ionic group, reactive group, or conjugated substance.