Flavonols, named as 3-hydroxyl-2-phenyl-1-benzopyran-4-one, are important natural botanical functional pigments widely distributing in fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Owing to intramolecular hydrogen bond, the flavonols can undergo the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) process upon irradiation, leading to unique environmental-sensitive dual emissions, which makes flavonol an ideal fluorophore skeleton for probe design. In this paper, we summarized the recent progress of flavonol-based small-molecule fluorescent probes for diverse sensing applications, including detection of anions, cations, reactive biological species, proteins, DNAs, environmental hazards, and microenvironmental factors. This review highlighted the basic characteristics of flavonol probes in the respect of design principles, photophysical processes, sensing mechanism, sensing performances, and biological applications. The present review article aims to offer a comprehensive summary for researchers to inspire new probe design, and push forward the advancement of flavonol-based fluorescent probes.

黄酮醇，称为3-羟基-2-苯基-1-苯并吡喃-4-酮，是重要的天然植物功能性颜料，广泛分布于水果，蔬菜和花卉中。由于分子内的氢键，黄酮醇在照射后会经历激发态的分子内质子转移（ESIPT）过程，从而导致独特的对环境敏感的双重发射，这使黄酮醇成为探针设计的理想荧光团骨架。在本文中，我们总结了基于黄酮醇的小分子荧光探针在各种传感应用中的最新进展，包括检测阴离子，阳离子，反应性生物物种，蛋白质，DNA，环境危害和微环境因素。这篇评论着重介绍了黄酮醇探针的基本特征，包括设计原理，光物理过程，感应机制，感应性能和生物学应用。本综述文章旨在为研究人员提供全面的摘要，以激发新的探针设计，并推动基于黄酮醇的荧光探针的发展。