Analytical supramolecular chemistry: Colorimetric and fluorimetric chemosensors

Chemical sensing using indicators, or chemosensor, has rapidly developed over the past decades. Its chemistry covers a wide range of scientific fields, in which analytical and supramolecular chemistry are key ideas to create functional and smart chemosensors. The principle of such a chemosensor design consists of three major processes: (1) to separate analytes, (2) to capture a specific analyte from a complex mixture, and (3) to output a signal from a [chemosensor•analyte] complex. In this review, “Analytical Supramolecular Chemistry” as a new scientific area was proposed, enabling us to promote deep insights into the mechanistic understanding of chemosensors. This review describes the interesting and representative chemosensors involving significant photochemical and photophysical processes and recent our advances in analytical supramolecular chemistry.