Carbon Dots and Fluorescein: The Ideal FRET Pair for the Fabrication of a Precise and Fully Reversible Ammonia Sensor
Chao-Peng Hsu,
Zahralsaadat Hejazi,
Efe Armagan,
Shanyu Zhao,
Michel Schmid,
Haijiang Zhang,
Huizhang Guo,
Lukas Weidenbacher,
René M. Rossi,
Matthias M. Koebel,
Luciano F. Boesel,
Claudio Toncelli
Affiliations
Chao-Peng Hsu
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Zahralsaadat Hejazi
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Efe Armagan
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Shanyu Zhao
Laboratory for Building Energy Materials and Components, Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science & Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Michel Schmid
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Haijiang Zhang
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Huizhang Guo
Institute for Building Materials, ETH Zürich, Stefano-Franscini-Platz 3, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Lukas Weidenbacher
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
René M. Rossi
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Matthias M. Koebel
Laboratory for Building Energy Materials and Components, Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science & Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Luciano F. Boesel
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Claudio Toncelli
Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Monitoring of ammonia in the human breath is of paramount importance to monitor diseases link to liver and kidney mulfunctioning. The present paper describes a solid-state optical ammonia sensor based on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between narrowly dispersed blue-emitting carbon nanodots (CNDs) as FRET donor and fluorescein as FRET acceptor. The fluorophores were physically entrapped in a close to superhydrophobic sol-gel matrix, in turn deposited on a PVDF-HFP electrospun fiber membrane. The sensor shows a linear calibration with a remarkably low limit of detection, i.e., 110 ppb, and adequate reproducibility up to six N2/NH3 cycles.
