Abstract

The applications of functional polymers to different research fields have been increasing. An especially important application is the use of polymer‐based sensors for the chromogenic detection of compounds of environmental interest in water. Polymer matrix supports have been developed to improve the sensing capacity and performance of chromogenic sensors. Therefore, research in the area of sensor design and manufacturing for pollutant detection is increasingly interesting to many scientific communities ranging from biological and chemical sciences to engineering. This subject of this review is colorimetric sensors that enable the rapid and quantitative detection of different analytes within a laboratory setup. The applications of different types of polymer‐based sensors used in the chromogenic detection of compounds of environmental interest are reviewed and analysed. © 2021 Society of Industrial Chemistry.