Our group aims to understand and develop chemical principles and materials for the realization of analytical sensing tools. We use electrochemical and optical readout principles for this purpose. A major direction is the realization of electrochemical and optical triggering of reactions and extraction processes: we aim to move from passive sensing systems to activated ones, where we gain full control about the time the sensing reaction takes place. With this in mind, we are developing controlled current protocols for speciation analysis of ions, coulometric thin layer principles for the realization of calibration free sensors, and optical triggering of extraction events for caged compound analogs.