A Sensitive A3B Porphyrin Nanomaterial for CO2 Detection
Eugenia Fagadar-Cosma,
Dana Vlascici,
Gheorghe Fagadar-Cosma,
Anca Palade,
Anca Lascu,
Ionela Creanga,
Mihaela Birdeanu,
Rodica Cristescu,
Ileana Cernica
Affiliations
Eugenia Fagadar-Cosma
Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy, M. Viteazul Ave, No. 24, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Dana Vlascici
Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy, M. Viteazul Ave, No. 24, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Gheorghe Fagadar-Cosma
CAICAM Department, Faculty of Industial Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Politehnica University, V. Parvan Bv., No. 6, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Anca Palade
Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy, M. Viteazul Ave, No. 24, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Anca Lascu
Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy, M. Viteazul Ave, No. 24, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Ionela Creanga
Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy, M. Viteazul Ave, No. 24, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Mihaela Birdeanu
Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy, M. Viteazul Ave, No. 24, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Rodica Cristescu
Lasers Department, National Institute for Lasers, Plasma & Radiation Physics, P.O. Box MG-36, Magurele, 077125 Bucharest, Romania
Ileana Cernica
National R&D Institute for Microtechnology, Erou Iancu Nicolae Street, No. 126 A, Voluntari, 077190 Bucharest, Romania
The present report deals with the tailoring, preparation and characterization of novel nanomaterials sensitive to CO2 for use in detection of this gas during space habitation missions. A new nanostructured material based on mixed substituted asymmetrical A3B porphyrin: 5-(4-pyridyl)-10,15,20-tris(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-porphyrin (PyTDMeOPP) was synthesized and characterized by 1H-NMR, FT-IR, UV-vis, fluorescence, MS, HPLC and AFM. Introducing one pyridyl substituent in the 5-meso-position of porphyrin macrocycle confers some degree of hydrophilicity, which may cause self-assembly properties and a better response to increased acidity. The influence of pH and nature of the solvent upon H and J aggregates of the porphyrin are discussed. Porphyrin aggregation at the air–THF interface gave a triangular type morphology, randomly distributed but uniformly oriented. When deposition was made by multiple drop-casting operations, a network of triangles of uniform size was created and a porous structure was obtained, being reorganized finally in rings. When the deposition was made from CHCl3, ring structures ranging in internal diameter from 300 nm to 1 µm, but with the same width of the corona circular of approx. 200 nm were obtained. This porphyrin-based material, capable of generating ring aggregates in both THF and CHCl3, has been proven to be sensitive to CO2 detection. The dependence between the intensity of porphyrin UV-vis absorption and the concentration of CO2 has a good correlation of 98.4%.