Photochemical Sciences Ph.D. Dissertations
Materials and Strategies in Optical Chemical Sensing
Date of Award
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Photochemical Sciences
First Advisor
Pavel Anzenbacher, Jr.
Second Advisor
Felix Castellanos (Committee Member)
Third Advisor
Deanne Snavely (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
John Laird (Committee Member)
Abstract
The detection of chemical species that play an important role in biological systems, industrial processes or that are environmental pollutants demands the development of highly sensitive and selective chemical sensors capable of operating in various media, particularly in water. Reliable sensing in water is a difficult problem, thus analytical tests and sensor devices for detection in aqueous media remain rare. The present work describes the rational design and formulation of materials for the optical chemical sensing of anions and metal ions in aqueous solution. These materials consist of optical chemosensors embedded in hydrophilic poly(ether)urethanes, which mimic the synergy between proteins and cofactors in enzymes. The resulting materials are arrayed and used in tandem for the detection of single analyte and multianalyte samples, such as toothpaste, human blood serum and enhanced soft drinks. This work also aims to demonstrate that the discriminatory power of sensor arrays might be improved by the use of selective, yet cross-reactive sensing elements. The balance between the selectivity and the cross-reactivity allows for a significant reduction in the number of elements in the sensor array, thereby simplifying the pattern recognition protocols, training sets, and calibrations while maintaining the high overall reliability of the sensing process.
Recommended Citation
Palacios, Manuel, "Materials and Strategies in Optical Chemical Sensing" (2008). Photochemical Sciences Ph.D. Dissertations. 26.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/photo_chem_diss/26