The development of colorimetric and fluorometric chemosensors that capable of detecting Cu²⁺ ions by a change in colour and fluorescence intensity has been described. Herein, chemosensors having pyrene functional groups as a signaling moiety are discussed in detail as pyrene derivatives show significant photophysical properties being superior to those of other commonly used scaffolds. This review article provides a detailed overview of pyrene containing chemosensors based on fluorescence mechanisms, such as excimer/exciplex formation, photoinduced electron transfer (PET), photoinduced charge transfer (PCT), aggregation induced emission (AIE), ligand to metal charge transfer process (LMCT), chelation enhanced quenching mechanism (CHEQ), Cu²⁺-selective reactions for the selective and sensitive detection of Cu²⁺. Potential future applications are also discussed because of the fact Cu²⁺ ion recognition has a great significance in the biological, environmental and medical sectors.

This article presents a novel asymmetrical functionalization strategy for the construction of dipolar molecules via efficient regioselective functionalization along the Z-axis of pyrene at both the 1,3- and 6,8-positions. Three asymmetrically substituted 1,3-diphenyl-6,8-R-disubsituted pyrenes were fully characterized by X-ray crystallography, photophysical properties, electrochemistry, and density functional theory calculations.