Anti-fouling sol-gel-derived sensing membrane entrapped with polymer containing phosphorylcholine groups for an optical O2 sensor application

An anti-fouling hybrid material composed of sol-gel-based material and polymer containing phosphorylcholine groups (PMB) was developed and applied to an optical O-2 sensor. An O-2 sensing dye, tris(4,7-diphenyl-1, 10-phenanthroline)ruthenium(II) chloride (RuDPP) was entrapped in the sol-gel-derived matrices in order to prepare the anti-fouling O-2 sensing membrane, and the effect of the entrapped PMB on the performance of the O-2 sensor was studied. The anti-fouling effect was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after incubating E. coli on the sol-gel-derived sensing membrane. The efficiency of the O-2 sensing membrane in the absence and presence of PMB was compared through the measurement of the fluorescence quenching rate constant of RuDPP in the sensing membrane by dissolved O-2 in H2O. Reversibility was observed through changes in the fluorescence intensity upon alternate exposure of the sensing membrane to O-2 and N-2 gas. The prepared sol-gel-derived sensing membrane also has good stability and reproducibility. The results indicated that the anti-fouling sol-gel-derived O-2 sensing membranes containing PMB were stable and the performance of the sensor was not affected at all by the entrapped PMB in the sol-gel-derived matrix. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.