Chromo- and Fluorogenic Organometallic Sensors

Compounds that change their absorption and/or emission properties in the presence of a target ion or molecule have been studied for many years as the basis for optical sensing. Within this group of compounds, a variety of organometallic complexes have been proposed for the detection of a wide range of analytes such as cations (including H+), anions, gases (e.g. O 2, SO2, organic vapours), small organic molecules, and large biomolecules (e.g. proteins, DNA). This chapter focuses on work reported within the last few years in the area of organometallic sensors. Some of the most extensively studied systems incorporate metal moieties with intense long-lived metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) excited states as the reporter or indicator unit, such as fac-tricarbonyl Re(I) complexes, cyclometallated Ir(III) species, and diimine Ru(II) or Os(II) derivatives. Other commonly used organometallic sensors are based on Pt-alkynyls and ferrocene fragments. To these reporters, an appropriate recognition or analyte-binding unit is usually attached so that a detectable modification on the colour and/or the emission of the complex occurs upon binding of the analyte. Examples of recognition sites include macrocycles for the binding of cations, H-bonding units selective to specific anions, and DNA intercalating fragments. A different approach is used for the detection of some gases or vapours, where the sensor's response is associated with changes in the crystal packing of the complex on absorption of the gas, or to direct coordination of the analyte to the metal centre

Modular Polymer Biosensors by Solvent Immersion Imprint Lithography.

We recently demonstrated Solvent Immersion Imprint Lithography (SIIL), a rapid benchtop microsystem prototyping technique, including polymer functionalization, imprinting and bonding. Here, we focus on the realization of planar polymer sensors using SIIL through simple solvent immersion without imprinting. We describe SIIL's impregnation characteristics, including an inherent mechanism that not only achieves practical doping concentrations, but their unexpected 2-fold enhancement compared to the immersion solution. Subsequently, we developed and characterized optical sensors for detecting molecular O2. To this end, a substantially high dynamic range is reported, including its control through the immersion duration, a manifestation of SIIL's modularity. Overall, SIIL exhibits the potential of improving the operating characteristics of polymer sensors, while significantly accelerating their prototyping, as it requires a few seconds of processing and no need for substrates or dedicated instrumentation. These are critical for O2 sensing as probed by way of example here, as well as any polymer permeable reactant

Modular Polymer Biosensors by Solvent Immersion Imprint Lithography.

We recently demonstrated Solvent Immersion Imprint Lithography (SIIL), a rapid benchtop microsystem prototyping technique, including polymer functionalization, imprinting and bonding. Here, we focus on the realization of planar polymer sensors using SIIL through simple solvent immersion without imprinting. We describe SIIL's impregnation characteristics, including an inherent mechanism that not only achieves practical doping concentrations, but their unexpected 2-fold enhancement compared to the immersion solution. Subsequently, we developed and characterized optical sensors for detecting molecular O2. To this end, a substantially high dynamic range is reported, including its control through the immersion duration, a manifestation of SIIL's modularity. Overall, SIIL exhibits the potential of improving the operating characteristics of polymer sensors, while significantly accelerating their prototyping, as it requires a few seconds of processing and no need for substrates or dedicated instrumentation. These are critical for O2 sensing as probed by way of example here, as well as any polymer permeable reactant

Simple fabrication of a highly sensitive and fast glucose biosensor using enzymes immobilized in mesocellular carbon foam

Glucose oxidase immobilized in mesocellular carbon foam results in a highly sensitive and fast glucose biosensor. The structure of the mesocellular foam (see Figure), with a combination of mesopores containing the glucose oxidase (GOx) enzymes and micropores and transport channels, results in high enzyme loading and low mass-transfer limitations, producing higher catalytic activity and sensitivity than polymer-matrix-based GOx glucose sensors.X11164sciescopu

Simple synthesis of hierarchically ordered mesocellular mesoporous silica materials hosting crosslinked enzyme aggregates

Hierarchically ordered mesocellular mesoporous silica materials (HMMS) were synthesized using a single structure-directing agent. The mesocellular pores are synthesized without adding any pore expander; the pore walls are composed of SBA-15 type mesopores. Small-angle X-ray scattering revealed the presence of uniform' pore structures with two different sizes. Using HMMS as a nanoscopic template, hierarchically ordered mesocellular mesoporous carbon (HMMC) and polymer (HMMP) materials were synthesized. HMMS was used as a host for enzyme immobilization. To improve the retention of enzymes in HMMS, we adsorbed enzymes, and then employed crosslinking using glutaraldehyde (GA). The resulting crosslinked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs) show an impressive stability with extremely high enzyme loadings. For example, 0.5 g alpha-chymotrypsin (CT) could be loaded in 1 g of silica with no activity decrease observed with rigorous shaking over one month. In contrast, adsorbed CT without GA treatment resulted in a lower loading, which further decreased due to continuous leaching of adsorbed CT under shaking. The activity of crosslinked CT aggregates in HMMS was approximate to 10 times higher than that of the adsorbed CT, which represents a 74-fold increase in activity per unit weight of HMMS due to higher CT loading.X11161sciescopu

Crosslinked enzyme aggregates in hierarchically-ordered mesoporous silica: A simple and effective method for enzyme stabilization

alpha-chymotrypsin (CT) and lipase (LP) were immobilized in hierarchically-ordered mesocellular mesoporous silica (HMMS) in a simple but effective way for the enzyme stabilization, which was achieved by the enzyme adsorption followed by glutaraldehyde (GA) cross-linking. This resulted in the formation of nanometer scale crosslinked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs) entrapped in the mesocellular pores of HMMS (37 nm), which did not leach out of HMMS through narrow mesoporous channels (13 nm). CLEA of alpha-chymotrypsin (CLEA-CT) in HMMS showed a high enzyme loading capacity and significantly increased enzyme stability. No activity decrease of CLEA-CT was observed for 2 weeks under even rigorously shaking condition, while adsorbed CT in HMMS and free CT showed a rapid inactivation due to the enzyme leaching and presumably autolysis, respectively. With the CLEA-CT in HMMS, however, there was no tryptic digestion observed suggesting that the CLEA-CT is not susceptible to autolysis. Moreover, CLEA of lipase (CLEA-LP) in HMMS retained 30% specific activity of free lipase with greatly enhanced stability. This work demonstrates that HMMS can be efficiently employed as host materials for enzyme immobilization leading to highly enhanced stability of the immobilized enzymes with high enzyme loading and activity.X11127125sciescopu