Calixarenes with dansyl groups as potential chemosensors

This short review describes the use of dansyl groups attached to calixarene scaffolds for the spectrofluorimetric detection of ionic and neutral analytes by complexation. References from the last decade are discussed and data on complex formation and analytical merits, such as the detection limit and the effect of competing ions for cation determination, are presented. Effects of the calixarene conformation and substituents on the lower and/or upper rims on the mechanism for guest-induced changes in the dansyl-group fluorescence are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.