Advances of surfactant aggregates in constructing cross-reactive fluorescent sensors and arrays for discriminative application

Amphiphilic surfactant molecules can spontaneously self-assemble into various colloidal aggregates in aqueous solution. The heterogeneous microstructure and the dynamic assembling nature endow surfactant aggregates with the capability of encapsulating fluorophores and modulating their photophysical properties, and lead to wide applications in constructing fluorescent sensors. The present short review mainly focuses on introducing the advances of surfactant aggregates in constructing cross-reactive fluorescent sensor and arrays that can generate fingerprint recognition pattern and realize discrimination. The construction strategies based on both nonfluorescent surfactant aggregates and surfactant-like fluorescent amphiphile aggregates were particularly introduced. The important roles played by surfactant aggregates in each strategy were as well discussed.