Among the anions, fluoride ion is the smallest one and has unique chemical properties because of the high electronegativity and strong basicity. Since fluoride ion is important for human health and environment, the detection of fluoride ion has received much attention recently. Up to now, numerous fluorescent and chromogenic sensors have been reported for detection of fluoride ion, based on organic boron compounds and hydrogen-bonding donors. Compared with these sensors, reaction-based sensors exhibit higher selectivity and are more suitable for detection in aqueous environment. In this paper, the recent progress on the study of reactive fluorescent sensors for fluoride ion, including the achievements of our research group, is summarized. Contents
1 Introduction
2 Design principles
3 Reactive fluorescent chemosensors for F^-
3.1 F^- fluorescent sensors based on silyl ether
3.2 F^- fluorescent sensors based on silyl acetylene
3.3 Other reactive F^- sensors
4 Outlook