Application of Iridium(III) complexes in phosphorescent chemosensors

Chemosensors have developed quickly because they are widely used in biology. Compared to organic fluorescent chemosensors, phosphorescent chemosensors based on heavy metal complexes have attracted great attention because of distinctive merits such as relatively long lifetimes and significant Stokes shifts. Iridium complexes had been successfully used as phosphorescent chemosensors because of their relatively short excited state lifetime, high photoluminescence efficiency, and wide range emission colors that can be tuned by the coordinated ligands. In this review, we have summarized the applications of iridium complexes in cation, anion, oxygen, amino acid, and pH sensors. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of these chemosensors have been compared to others. Finally, some prospects for future study are proposed.