A Pyrene@Micelle Sensor for Fluorescent Oxygen Sensing

For most fluorescent oxygen sensors developed today, their fabrication process is either time-consuming or needs specialized knowledge. In this work, a robust fluorescent oxygen sensor is facilely constructed by dissolving pyrene molecules into CTAB aqueous solution. The as-prepared pyrene@micelle sensors have submicron-sized diameter, and the concentration of utilized pyrene can be reduced as low as 0.8 mM but still can exhibit dominant excimer emission. The excimer fluorescence is sensitive to dissolved oxygen in both intensity and lifetime, and the respective Stern-Volmer plot follows a nonlinear behavior justified by a two-site model. Because of the merits of large Stokes shift (~140 nm), easy fabrication, and robustness, the pyrene@micelle sensors are very attractive for practical determination of oxygen.