Journal
ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS
Volume 5, Issue 10, Pages 14639-14645Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.2c03005
Keywords
graphene; GQD; droplets; sensing; fluorescence; partition
Funding
- Natural Science and Engineering Research Council NSERC
- NSERC CREATE [CREATE-463990-2015]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG [IRTG 2022]
- Alberta Innovates Strategic Projects Program
- NSERC-Alberta Innovates Advanced Program
- Mitacs Accelerate Industrial program
- Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
- Schulich School of Engineering
- Eyes High Program at the University of Calgary
- SHARP Research Consortium
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This research focuses on sensing nitroaromatics using graphene quantum dots, showing that the limit of detection can be significantly lowered by utilizing a droplet-based analyte partitioning effect. This method has broader implications for fluorescence-quenching-based sensing strategies.
Sensing and detecting nitroaromatics (NAs) are essential for environmental, health, and safety reasons. Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) respond to the presence of NAs by a well-understood fluorescence quenching mechanism. However, despite the relative simplicity of fluorescence-based sensing, the limit of detection (LoD) can compare unfavorably with other methods. Here, we show that the LoD for sensors based on GQDs can be lowered by orders of magnitude using a droplet-based analyte partitioning effect. While previous efforts have attempted to improve the intrinsic GQD sensitivity via surface functionalization and size control, we show that a major improvement can be attained by changing from a bulk solution to droplet-based sensing of 2,4-dinitrotoluene and nitrobenzene. Moreover, the method is compatible with sensing from an aqueous solvent and has broader implications for many fluorescence-quenching-based sensing strategies that could benefit from partition-related enhancements.
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