Renovating the chromoionophores and detection modes in carrier-based ion-selective optical sensors

Ion-selective optical sensing is an important branch of analytical and bioanalytical chemistry. Conventional ion-selective optodes are based on H+ chromoionophores. These sensors are known to be pH dependent and usually operated in a passive mode. In view of the applications in complex real samples, the sensors must exhibit not only excellent chemical selectivity but also the ability to eliminate the optical background interference such as autofluorescence and light scattering. In this article, recent advances to renovate the chromoionophores and detection modes to overcome the pH cross-response and to eliminate the background optical interference are summarized. Topics include sensors based on solvatochromic dyes, alternative chromoionophores, photoswitchable sensors, upconverting nanoparticles, luminescence decay time, and others.