Naphthalimide‐Based Fluorescent Polymers for Molecular Detection

The beginning of the 21st century was marked by the intensive development of fiber‐optic sensors. New functional materials with excellent sensory properties are required to design such sensors. Fluorescent probes for neutral and charged molecules are constantly developing. However, only a small part of the reported probes was successfully converted into functional sensing polymers and found real‐world applications. A great challenge is to retain the sensing properties of a probe in a polymer matrix. The purpose of this review is to understand how properties of a probe are changed upon incorporation into a polymer and to reveal successful approaches. The review focuses on the use of the naphthalimide‐based probes in the construction of sensing polymers. The literature overview is presented according to the nature of the guest molecules targeted for the quantitative detection: cations, anions, and small organic molecules. The review answers a number of questions related to the design and properties of sensing polymers, which are of great interest for the researchers working in organic synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, host–guest interactions, polymer chemistry, and spectroscopy. In the focus of interest are sensing polymers based on naphthalimide derivatives, which can detect ions and neutral species.