Boronic acid-based sensors

There has been a great deal of interest in recent years in using boronic acid as the recognition motif for the development of sensors. Because boronic acids can form tight and reversible complexes with diol compounds such as carbohydrates, the majority of the efforts, led by the Shinkai group, have been on the development of sensors for carbohydrates. Boronic acids are also known to selectively recognize fluoride among halides and other anions. Therefore, there have also been efforts in using boronic acid compounds for the development fluoride sensors. This paper reviews the progress in this field during the last five years.