Functionalized Carbon Nanoparticle-Based Sensors forChemical Warfare Agents
2020
Real-time
sensing of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) is, today,
a crucial topic to prevent lethal effects of a chemical terroristic
attack. For this reason, the development of efficient, selective,
sensitive, and reversible sensoristic devices, which are able to detect
by optical response the ppm levels of these compounds, both in water
and in air, is strongly required. Here, we report the design and synthesis
of a fluorescent nanosensor, based on carbon nanoparticles covalently
functionalized with ethanolamine arms, which exploits the multitopic
supramolecular interaction with nerve agents, ensuring highly efficient
(log K 6.46) and selective molecular recognition.
Moreover, given the aqueous dispersibility of carbon nanoparticles,
these nanosensors ensure even higher sensitivity, detecting sub-ppt
concentration of nerve agents in water, and sub-ppm level in air by
using a common digital camera or a smartphone. Our results pave the
way to an innovative class of low-cost reusable CWA sensors, prompting,
for the first time, the simultaneous detection of nerve agents through
gaseous and aqueous media, thus extending the protection range to
public water supplies.
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