Boronic Acid‐Based Receptors

Abstract

Abstract The ability to monitor analytes within physiological, environmental, and industrial scenarios is of prime importance. As recognition events occur on a molecular level, gathering and processing the information poses a fundamental challenge. Therefore, robust chemical molecular sensors, known as “chemosensors,” with the capacity to detect chosen molecules selectively and signal this presence continue to attract considerable attention. Real‐time monitoring of saccharides is of particular interest, such as D ‐glucose in blood. Toward that end, the covalent coupling interaction between boronic acids and saccharides has been exploited with some success to monitor the presence of such saccharides. The boronic acid–and Lewis acid base interaction is also suitable for the capture and recognition of anions. Anions are involved in fundamental processes in all living things. Our aim as synthetic chemists is to mimic nature s level of sophistication in designing and producing chemosensors capable of determining the concentration of a target analyte (i.e., saccharides and anions) in any medium.