The purpose of this research is to design and synthesise a self-assembled receptor/sensor system capable of detecting phosphate oxoanions. The development of artificial sensors which can selectively detect phosphates (such as ATP and PPi) has exciting bioanalytical applications as phosphorylated compounds are important mediators of numerous biochemical processes. Our designed sensor consists of zincdipicolylamine units that have previously been shown to detect phosphate functional groups. The introduction of a long hydrophobic tail is used to bring two zincdipicolylamine units close together, driving the self-assembly of a supramolecular complex that is able to bind phosphates. By combining this complex with the colorimetric dye bromopyrogallol red, we were able to construct an indicator displacement assay (IDA) that has different selectivities for a range of inorganic phosphates. With this study, we demonstrate that self-assembly can be an exciting new approach for constructing artificial sensors.