Nucleotides are constituents of nucleic acids and they have a variety of functions in cellular metabolism. Synthetic receptors and sensors are required to reveal the role of nucleotides in living organisms and mechanisms of signal transduction events. In recent years, a large number of nucleotide‐selective synthetic receptors have been devised, which utilize different molecular designs and sensing mechanisms. This Minireview presents recent progress in the design of synthetic molecular receptors for selective recognition of nucleotides in aqueous solution. The binding properties of receptors and the origins of their selectivity for a particular nucleotide are discussed.

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.

New naphthalimide-based receptors for anions have been synthesized. Efficient synthetic routes have been discovered to functionalize the naphthalimide core with branched polyamines. Binding and sensing properties of the receptors were studied by potentiometric, NMR and fluorescence titrations. The receptors bind selectively to the pyrophosphate anion in buffered aqueous solutions. The receptors with more than six amine groups in the structure demonstrated the highest affinities for pyrophosphate. The fluorescence response towards anions was found to be dependent on the position of the amine groups relative to the naphthalimide core, and on the pH of the buffered solution. Three sensing mechanisms have been found that explain fluorescence responses of receptors towards anions in an aqueous solution.

Receptors bearing hydrogen and halogen bond donors for recognition of perrhenate and pertechnetate were designed and studied. Acyclic hosts with N-H and C-H binding sites showed the best selectivity for TcO4- and ReO4- over spherical and more basic tetrahedral anions.