The cataluminescence (CTL)-based sensor is a new promising type of chemical transducer, and has attracted much attention of researchers for its potential versatile applications in public safety, emission control and environmental protection. In this review, we briefly introduce the development history of CTL-based sensors and summarize existing explanations of the CTL reaction mechanism as well as three research strategies for mechanism the CTL mechanism. In the following, all the function units of a typical CTL-based sensor system are described and the investigation of the sensor materials. CTL-based sensor arrays, are discussed in detail. We classify the recent novel hyphenated techniques based on CTL coupled to other analysis techniques into the preconcentration-CTL hyphenated technique, nebulization-CTL hyphenated technique, plasma-assisted CTL technique and tandem CTL technique according to the type of analysis combined with CTL and provide a detailed account of novel hyphenated techniques. Owing to the appearance of these novel techniques, the application range of CTL has been expanded as well as the sensitivity and selectivity of CTL system has been greatly improved. Finally, the applications of CTL-based sensor and sensor arrays in the last several years are classified and summarized.
Keywords: Cataluminescence; novel system; sensor array; sensor materials; sensor system.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.