The growing demand for the detection of trace analytes, such as drugs, biomarkers, environmental pollutants, and explosives, in different fields including on-site healthcare monitoring, disease diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and homeland security has driven the development of high-performance sensors to tackle real-world problems. Self-assembly of nanoparticles mediated by macrocyclic molecules provides a facile method to fabricate nanosubstrates with precise interparticle spacings, leading to very strong and reproducible signals. This introductory book is designed to offer fundamental insights into the nanosensing platforms based on macrocycle-functionalised nanoparticles, including their synthesis and functionalisation, host-guest chemistry, and optical spectroscopies. It also explores potential applications of these nanosensing platforms in biological and chemical sensing.

Weng-I Katherine Chio is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Macau, China. She earned her BEng in materials science and engineering and MRes in nanomaterials from Imperial College London and PhD in chemistry from University College London (UCL), United Kingdom. She has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed publications while acting as a journal reviewer. Her research interests include nanomaterials, supramolecular chemistry, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for on-site environmental monitoring and disease diagnostics.

Tung-Chun Lee is an associate professor of nanomaterials chemistry at UCL. He earned his BSc in chemistry from the University of Hong Kong in 2005 and PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, in 2012. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany, from 2011 to 2014. At UCL, he leads an interdisciplinary group to explore chemistry under nano-confinement for catalysis and develops novel plasmonic sensors for trace chemical detection. His research interests include hybrid nanoparticles, nanofabrication, nanochemistry, supramolecular chemistry, active matter, and transmission electron microscopy.