PVA-SM microstructure enhanced ratiometric fluorescence probe for formaldehyde detection in solution and gas

Opt Lett. 2021 Nov 15;46(22):5759-5762. doi: 10.1364/OL.441296.

Abstract

Formaldehyde (FA) is one of the most common pollutants, which has tremendous harm to humans and environment. In this work, 4-amino-3-pentene-2-one (Fluoral-p) and SiO2 coated quantum dot (QD@SiO2) were combined to implement a new ratiometric fluorescence probe QD@SiO2-Fluoral-p for FA detection. In addition, by utilization of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and SiO2 microsphere (SM), a kind of PVA-SM microstructure was assembled with QD@SiO2-Fluoral-p to composite a signal enhanced sensing film. The QD@SiO2-Fluoral-p exhibited good response to 0-400 mg/L FA solution and an enhancement around 15 folds was realized after introducing PVA-SM. In both situations, the probe showed linear relationship to FA concentration (CFA), with detection limits of 14 and 0.5 mg/L, respectively. Also, the sensing film showed a good linear response to FA gas in the range of 0 to 2 ppm, with a detection limit 0.03 ppm. As a result, the PVA-SM enhanced ratiometric fluorescence probe features high sensitivity, low detection limit, good selectivity, as well as portable, which can serve as a useful tool for investigating FA in solution and gas at room temperature.