A confined carbon dot-based self-calibrated fluorescence probe for visible and high-sensitivity moisture readouts

Author(s):  
Zhong-Zheng Ding ◽  
Guang-Song Zheng ◽  
Qing Lou ◽  
Jiang-Fan Han ◽  
Meng-Yuan Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract Excellent luminescent materials are essential for high-performance fluorescent nanosensors. Here, a new-type self-calibrated humidity sensor has been established through monitoring the fluorescent color change of carbon dots (CDs) confined in sodium hydroxide (CDs@NaOH). The CDs are prepared by a facile and rapid microwave assisted heating method using citric acid, urea, and NaOH as precursors. The confinement effect from NaOH has reduced the nonradiative transition and suppressed the aggregation-induced quenching of the CDs in solid. Compared with other sensors based on CD fluorescent visualization, the sensor has good linearity and wide humidity detection range from 6.9% to 95.4%. With the increased relative humidity, the fluorescence color of the sensor change from green to blue. The proposed sensing mechanism is due to the breaking and reforming of hydrogen bonds and proton transfer occurring at the CD-NaOH matrix interfaces. This finding suggests a potential role for the spatial confinement effect and may provide an avenue for developing highly sensitive humidity readouts.

2021 ◽  
Vol 368 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liwen Zhang ◽  
Qingyu Lv ◽  
Yuling Zheng ◽  
Xuan Chen ◽  
Decong Kong ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT T-2 is a common mycotoxin contaminating cereal crops. Chronic consumption of food contaminated with T-2 toxin can lead to death, so simple and accurate detection methods in food and feed are necessary. In this paper, we establish a highly sensitive and accurate method for detecting T-2 toxin using AlphaLISA. The system consists of acceptor beads labeled with T-2-bovine serum albumin (BSA), streptavidin-labeled donor beads and biotinylated T-2 antibodies. T-2 in the sample matrix competes with T-2-BSA for antibodies. Adding biotinylated antibodies to the test well followed by T-2 and T-2-BSA acceptor beads yielded a detection range of 0.03–500 ng/mL. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration was 2.28 ng/mL and the coefficient of variation was <10%. In addition, this method had no cross-reaction with other related mycotoxins. This optimized method for extracting T-2 from food and feed samples achieved a recovery rate of approximately 90% in T-2 concentrations as low as 1 ng/mL, better than the performance of a commercial ELISA kit. This competitive AlphaLISA method offers high sensitivity, good specificity, good repeatability and simple operation for detecting T-2 toxin in food and feed.


Molecules ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuangjiao Xu ◽  
Kehai Zhou ◽  
Dan Fang ◽  
Lei Ma

In this paper, fluorescent copper nanoclusters (NCs) are used as a novel probe for the sensitive detection of gossypol for the first time. Based on a fluorescence quenching mechanism induced by interactions between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and gossypol, fluorescent BSA-Cu NCs were seen to exhibit a high sensitivity to gossypol in the range of 0.1–100 µM. The detection limit for gossypol is 25 nM at a signal-to-noise ratio of three, which is approximately 35 times lower than the acceptable limit (0.9 µM) defined by the US Food and Drug Administration for cottonseed products. Moreover, the proposed method for gossypol displays excellent selectivity over many common interfering species. We also demonstrate the application of the present method to the measurement of several real samples with satisfactory recoveries, and the results agree well with those obtained using the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The method based on Cu NCs offers the followings advantages: simplicity of design, facile preparation of nanomaterials, and low experimental cost.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muthusamy Selvaraj ◽  
Kanagaraj Rajalakshmi ◽  
Yun-Sik Nam ◽  
Yeonhee Lee ◽  
Byoung Chan Kim ◽  
...  

Intracellular H2O2 monitoring is important and has driven researchers to pursue advancements for the rapid identification of H2O2, since H2O2 is short-lived in cell lines. An arylboronate derivative has been investigated as a chemospecific fluorescence recognition agent for H2O2. Triphenylimidazoleoxadiazolephenyl (TPIOP) boronate was contrived as a novel candidate for the rapid and sensitive recognition of H2O2. The probe was conjugated using the TPIOP functional group acting as an excellent fluorescent enhancer. The TPIOP group stimulated the polarization of C–B bond due to its extended π-conjugation, which included heteroatoms, and induced the production of rapid signal because of the highly polar C–B bond along with the corresponding boronate unit. While H2O2 reacts with TPIOP boronate, its nucleophilic addition to the boron generates a charged tetrahedral boronate complex, and then the C–B bond migrates toward one of the electrophilic peroxide oxygen atoms. The resulting boronate ester is then hydrolyzed by water into a phenol, which significantly enhances fluorescence through aggregation-induced emission. The TPIOP boronate probe responded to H2O2 rapidly, within 2 min, and exhibited high sensitivity with a limit of detection of 8 nM and a 1000-fold selectivity in the presence of other reactive oxygen species. Therefore, the developed TPIOP boronate chemodosimeter was successfully utilized to visualize and quantify intracellular H2O2 from human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells, as well as gaseous and aqueous H2O2 from environmental samples using Whatman paper strips coated with TPIOP boronate.


1994 ◽  
Vol 301 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Swillens ◽  
I Pirson

Several molecular mechanisms have been proposed to explain highly sensitive controls of cellular functions by effector molecules. Here we study an equilibrium model describing the regulation of transcriptional activity through the heterodimerization of transcription factors. We demonstrate that this model involves a new type of biochemical control which accounts for a very high sensitivity.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Zhou ◽  
Yongna Zhang ◽  
Jun Yang ◽  
Jialu Li ◽  
Shi Luo ◽  
...  

Wearable pressure sensors have attracted widespread attention in recent years because of their great potential in human healthcare applications such as physiological signals monitoring. A desirable pressure sensor should possess the advantages of high sensitivity, a simple manufacturing process, and good stability. Here, we present a highly sensitive, simply fabricated wearable resistive pressure sensor based on three-dimensional microstructured carbon nanowalls (CNWs) embedded in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The method of using unpolished silicon wafers as templates provides an easy approach to fabricate the irregular microstructure of CNWs/PDMS electrodes, which plays a significant role in increasing the sensitivity and stability of resistive pressure sensors. The sensitivity of the CNWs/PDMS pressure sensor with irregular microstructures is as high as 6.64 kPa−1 in the low-pressure regime, and remains fairly high (0.15 kPa−1) in the high-pressure regime (~10 kPa). Both the relatively short response time of ~30 ms and good reproducibility over 1000 cycles of pressure loading and unloading tests illustrate the high performance of the proposed device. Our pressure sensor exhibits a superior minimal limit of detection of 0.6 Pa, which shows promising potential in detecting human physiological signals such as heart rate. Moreover, it can be turned into an 8 × 8 pixels array to map spatial pressure distribution and realize array sensing imaging.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Lei Jia ◽  
Zhitao Xu ◽  
Rujie Chen ◽  
Xiangzhen Chen ◽  
Jun Xu

Tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) are the most widely used broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents in tetracycline drugs, and their structures and properties are very similar, so it is a great challenge to distinguish and detect these two antibiotics with a single probe at the same time. Herein, a dual-channel fluorescence probe (SiCDs@mMIPs-cit-Eu) was developed by integrating two independent reaction sites with SiCDs-doped mesoporous silica molecular imprinting group and europium complex group into a nanomaterial. The synergistic influence of inner filter effect and “antenna effect” can be guaranteed to solve the distinction between TC and OTC. Moreover, this novel strategy can also sequentially detect TC and OTC in buffer solution and real samples with high sensitivity and selectivity. This method revealed good responses to TC and OTC ranging from 0 to 5.5 μM with a detection limit of 5 and 16 nM, respectively. Combined with the smartphone color-scanning application, the portable and cheap paper-based sensor was designed to realize the multi-color visual on-site detection of TC and OTC. In addition, the logic gate device was constructed according to the fluorescence color change of the probe for TC and OTC, which provided the application possibility for the intelligent detection of the probe.


Polymers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo-Yu Chen ◽  
Yen-Chen Lung ◽  
Chi-Ching Kuo ◽  
Fang-Cheng Liang ◽  
Tien-Liang Tsai ◽  
...  

Novel multifunctional fluorescent chemosensors composed of electrospun (ES) nanofibers with high sensitivity toward pH, mercury ions (Hg2+), and temperature were prepared from poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide-co-N-methylolacrylamide-co-rhodamine derivative) (poly(NIPAAm-co-NMA-co-RhBN2AM)) by employing an electrospinning process. NIPAAm and NMA moieties provide hydrophilic and thermo-responsive properties (absorption of Hg2+ in aqueous solutions), and chemical cross-linking sites (stabilization of the fibrous structure in aqueous solutions), respectively. The fluorescent probe, RhBN2AM is highly sensitive toward pH and Hg2+. The synthesis of poly(NIPAAm-co-NMA-co-RhBN2AM) with different compositions was carried on via free-radical polymerization. ES nanofibers prepared from sensory copolymers with a 71.1:28.4:0.5 NIPAAm:NMA:RhBN2AM ratio (P3 ES nanofibers) exhibited significant color change from non-fluorescent to red fluorescence while sensing pH (the λPL, max exhibited a 4.8-fold enhancement) or Hg2+ (at a constant Hg2+ concentration (10−3 M), the λPL, max of P3-fibers exhibited 4.7-fold enhancement), and high reversibility of on/off switchable fluorescence emission at least five times when Hg2+ and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) were sequentially added. The P3 ES nanofibrous membranes had a higher surface-to-volume ratio to enhance their performance than did the corresponding thin films. In addition, the fluorescence emission of P3 ES nanofibrous membranes exhibited second enhancement above the lower critical solution temperature. Thus, the ES nanofibrous membranes prepared from P3 with on/off switchable capacity and thermo-responsive characteristics can be used as a multifunctional sensory device for specific heavy transition metal (HTM) in aqueous solutions.


Author(s):  
Yu Zhuang ◽  
Yanling Guo ◽  
Jian Li ◽  
Yueqiang Yu ◽  
Kaiyi Jiang ◽  
...  

AbstractConductive polymer composites (CPCs) combining with specific microstructures (micropores, microcracks, etc.) can exhibit unique resistance response changes, which can be widely regarded as an effective way to improve sensing performance. This study takes advantage of the characteristics of the formation of tiny pores between crystal grains during selective laser sintering (SLS) processing to introduce a microporous structure into the thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)/carbon nanotube (CNT) sensing element to prepare a three-dimensional porous conductive structure. The effect of the SLS process on sensing sensitivity, accuracy, and density was studied, and its sensing and forming mechanism were discussed. By adjusting SLS process parameters to control the performance of porous structure sensor elements, a final TPU/CNT sensor element with a wide pressure detection range, high sensitivity, a fast response time, and good stability and durability was developed. Finally, the optimal performance of the developed flexible pressure sensor was successfully used to detect the pressure distribution of the human foot. This study provided a simple and effective research method to develop high-performance flexible pressure sensors.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 933
Author(s):  
Daekwang Jung ◽  
Kyumin Kang ◽  
Hyunjin Jung ◽  
Duhwan Seong ◽  
Soojung An ◽  
...  

Although skin-like pressure sensors exhibit high sensitivity with a high performance over a wide area, they have limitations owing to the critical issue of being linear only in a narrow strain range. Various strategies have been proposed to improve the performance of soft pressure sensors, but such a nonlinearity issue still exists and the sensors are only effective within a very narrow strain range. Herein, we fabricated a highly sensitive multi-channel pressure sensor array by using a simple thermal evaporation process of conducting nanomembranes onto a stretchable substrate. A rigid-island structure capable of dissipating accumulated strain energy induced by external mechanical stimuli was adopted for the sensor. The performance of the sensor was precisely controlled by optimizing the thickness of the stretchable substrate and the number of serpentines of an Au membrane. The fabricated sensor exhibited a sensitivity of 0.675 kPa−1 in the broad pressure range of 2.3–50 kPa with linearity (~0.990), and good stability (>300 Cycles). Finally, we successfully demonstrated a mapping of pressure distribution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhifeng Deng ◽  
Cheng Wang ◽  
Junqiang Li ◽  
Meng Zheng

The ability to detect fluoride anions with high selectivity and sensitivity by using the naked eye is crucial yet challenging. In this study, a novel, simple conjugated organic dye, N-tert-butyldimethylsilyl-3,6-diiodocarbazole (CA-TBMDS) was developed and used for the first time as a colorimetric sensor for fluoride. CA-TBMDS was found to be a highly sensitive fluoride chemosensor, with a detection limit as low as 3 × 10−5 M. The reaction of CA-TBMDS with fluoride anions in a tetrahydrofuran solution resulted in a color change from colorless to yellow under ambient light, which can be discriminated by the naked eye. The sensor operated via intermolecular proton transfer between the amide units and the fluoride anion, as confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance titration. CA-TBMDS is not only highly sensitive to fluoride anions, but also exhibits high sensitivity in the presence of various ions. This work demonstrates that N-butyldimethylchlorosilane-based organic dyes have prospective utility as a type of fluoride anion chemosensor.


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