Issue 8, 2023

Dual fluorescent hollow silica nanofibers for in situ pH monitoring using an optical fiber

Abstract

This study reports a sensitive and robust pH sensor based on dual fluorescent doped hollow silica nanofibers (hSNFs) for in situ and real-time pH monitoring. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)dichlororuthenium(II) hexahydrate (Ru(BPY)3) were chosen as a pH sensitive dye and reference dye, respectively. hSNFs were synthesized using a two-step method in a reverse micelle system and were shown to have an average length of 6.20 μm and average diameter of 410 nm. The peak intensity ratio of FITC/Ru(BPY)3 was used to calibrate to solution pH changes. An optical-fiber-based fluorescence detection system was developed that enabled feasible and highly efficient near-field fluorescence detection. The developed system enables fully automated fluorescence detection, where components including the light source, detector, and data acquisition unit are all controlled by a computer. The results show that the developed pH sensor works in a linear range of pH 4.0–9.0 with a fast response time of less than 10 s and minimal sample volume of 50 μL, and can be stored under dark conditions for one month without failure. In addition, the as-prepared hSNF-based pH sensors also have excellent long-term durability. Experimental results from ratiometric sensing confirm the high feasibility, accuracy, stability and simplicity of the dual fluorescent hSNF sensors for the detection of pH in real samples.

Graphical abstract: Dual fluorescent hollow silica nanofibers for in situ pH monitoring using an optical fiber

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Dec 2022
Accepted
15 Jan 2023
First published
06 Feb 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2023,5, 2180-2189

Dual fluorescent hollow silica nanofibers for in situ pH monitoring using an optical fiber

J. Zhou, Y. Ren, Y. Nie, C. Jin, J. Park and J. X. J. Zhang, Nanoscale Adv., 2023, 5, 2180 DOI: 10.1039/D2NA00943A

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