In nature, carbohydrates are not only known as energy substances and structural materials of life, but also famous as signaling molecules that play critical roles in cell recognition and regulation processes. Therefore, the investigation and simulation of carbohydrates recognition process will greatly contribute to the research of some pathological process involved with carbohydrate, which has attracted great interests in the development of artificial receptors for carbohydrates. Inspiring from protein-carbohydrate interactions in biological system, most of recognition procedures are based on two binding modes, one is hydrogen bonding interaction between hydroxyl groups of carbohydrates and polar residues of the receptors, the other is σ-π stacking or even sandwich inclusion involving CH moieties of carbohydrates and aromatic segments of receptors. Although significant progresses in carbohydrates sensing in organic solvents have been achieved in the past few decades, the binding of carbohydrates and their derivatives with high sensitivity and specific selectivity in aqueous solution still remains as one of the most interesting but challenging topics in current chemistry. Therefore, the investigation of these artificial receptors not only provides a series of valuable model systems mimicking natural products for carbohydrate recognition, but also promotes many biomimetic applications. In this work, the recent progresses on artificial receptors for carbohydrates in aqueous media are summarized from four aspects: supramolecular chemistry system, multi-branch architecture system, synthetic lectins and polymeric interface system. Among which we specifically highlight the synthetic lections and a novel carbohydrate recognition strategy based on polymeric interface materials. Finally, the research prospects are proposed briefly.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Supramolecular chemistry systems
2.1 Cyclodextrin
2.2 Curdlan
2.3 Calixarene
2.4 Porphyrin
3 Multi-branch architecture systems
3.1 Dicarboxylate
3.2 Cyclopentane
3.3 Guanidinium and analogues
4 Synthetic lectins
4.1 Macrocyclic synthetic lectins
4.2 Polymer-based synthetic lectins
4.3 Oligo-peptide-based synthetic lectins
5 Polymeric interface systems
6 Conclusion and outlook