Reporter compounds based on aromatic and heterocyclic compounds, including intermediates used to synthesize the reporter compounds, and methods of synthesizing and using the reporter compounds, where the reporter compounds generally have the structure: where at least one pair of adjacent substituents (R.sup.a, R.sup.b), (R.sup.b, R.sup.c), (R.sup.c, R.sup.d), (R.sup.d, R.sup.e), (R.sup.e, R.sup.f), (R.sup.f, R.sup.a) is either a substituted cyclic or polycyclic group; or at least one set of three substituents (R.sup.a, R.sup.b, R.sup.c), (R.sup.b, R.sup.c, R.sup.d), (R.sup.c, R.sup.d, R.sup.e), (R.sup.d, R.sup.e, R.sup.f), (R.sup.e, R.sup.f, R.sup.a) is a substituted cyclic or polycyclic group.