Synthesis of ferrocenylcarbodiimide as a convenient electrochemically active labeling reagent for nucleic acids

Ferrocenylcarbodiimides 1 and 2, having different redox potentials, were used for convenient electrochemically active labeling reagents for nucleic acids. The amount of labeled DNAs could be quantitated by their current intensities at their individual potentials, allowing competitive detection of two different DNA samples.