Sharif Digital Repository

Simply obtained by the oxidation of levodopa in alkaline media, polylevodopa nanoparticles are able to quench the fluorescence emission of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) via energy transfer mechanism. The extent of this quenching can be exploited for the quantification of levodopa, as an important therapeutic agent in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. However, to effectively improve the detection performance, in this study, we have designed a ratiometric probe by making use of variations in both the emission of QDs and the intrinsic emission of polylevodopa nanoparticles. The enhanced sensitivity, in particular, arose from the measurement of the ratio of fluorescence intensities at two... 

Signal generation techniques for visual detection of analytes have received a great deal of attention in various sensing fields. These approaches are considered to be advantageous when instrumentation cannot be employed, such as for on-site assays, point-of-care tests, and he althcare diagnostics in resource-constrained areas. Amongst various visual detection approaches explored for non-invasive quantitative measurements, ratiometric fluorescence sensing has received particular attention as a potential method to overcome the limitations of intensity-based probes. This technique relies on changes in the intensity of two or more emission bands (induced by an analyte), resulting in an effective... 

Owing to its dual role as a hormone and neurotransmitter, norepinephrine (NE) detection is of great significance to biomedical diagnosis. In the present work, we have explored intense green fluorescence of poly (norepinephrine) (PNE) nanoparticles synthesized by oxidizing NE in alkaline condition, in combination with red fluorescent bovine serum albumin-stabilized gold nanoclusters (BSA-AuNCs) for naked-eye detection of NE. The effect of sodium hydroxide on the emission behavior of NE was studied. The surface morphology and optical properties of PNE nanoparticles were characterized by UV–Vis, fluorescence, FTIR, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)... 

A new strategy has been proposed to expand color-tunability of ratiometric fluorescent probes. It was shown that the combination of blue emissive color (as an internal standard) and yellow emissive color (as a probe) is an efficient way to create an extensive color range in ratiometric probes. However, due to the nature of the interaction between the analyte and the probe in terms of fluorescence quenching, occurance of the redshift in the emission is the major provision of such a probe. Our developed ratiometric fluorescence probe consists of blue emissive carbon dots (BCDs) and thioglycolic acid (TGA)-capped yellow emissive cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (YQDs). The ratiometric... 

Detection of nitroaromatic explosives is of strong concern because of human health, public safety, environment, and military issues. In this study, we present a ratiometric sensor array for detection and discrimination of widely-used nitroaromatics (i.e., 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP), and 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT)). In the design of sensor elements (SE) we employ blue emissive carbon dots (BCDs) in combination with yellow (SE-A) and red (SE-B) emissive cadmium telluride quantum dots (CdTe QDs). The fluorescence intensity of BCDs, YQDs, and RQDs is quenched by TNT, DNT, and TNP in various degrees. Both TNT and TNP cause the quenching and spectral shift of BCDs (TNT... 

In this study, a novel, simple and sensitive ratiometric fluorescence method is presented for the detection of very low quantities of the carbaryl in Iranian apple using cadmium telluride quantum dots (CdTe QDs) nanoprobe. The principle of the proposed strategy relies on the rapid hydrolysis of the carbaryl under an alkaline condition and production of the 1-naphthol with a blue emission at 470 nm. Besides, using the CdTe QDs with a yellow emission at 580 nm, as a reference, improves the visual tracking of carbaryl through changes in color tonality. The herein described methodology is applied for enzyme-free visual detection of carbaryl with satisfactory results in the presence of other... 

A simple and effective ratiometric fluorescence sensor for selective detection of dopamine (DA) in alkaline media has been developed by simply mixing thioglycolic acid (TGA) functionalized orange fluorescent cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) with amino-functionalized blue fluorescent carbon nanodots (CDs). Under a single excitation wavelength of 365 nm, the sensor exhibits dual-emissions centered at 445 and 603 nm. The fluorescence of CdTe QDs is selectively quenched by DA, whereas the fluorescence of CDs is insensitive to the analyte. In the presence of different amounts of DA, the variations in the dual emission intensity ratios exhibit a continuous color change from pink to... 

In the present study, a ratiometric fluorescent sensor array as an artificial tongue has been developed on a nanopaper platform for chemical discrimination applications. The bacterial cellulose (BC) nanopaper was utilized for the first time as a novel, flexible, and transparent substrate in the optical sensor arrays for developing high-performance artificial tongues. To fabricate this platform, the hydrophobic walls on the BC nanopaper substrates were successfully created using a laser printing technology. In addition, we have used the interesting photoluminescence (PL) properties of an immobilized ratiometric probe (carbon dot-Rhodamine B (CD-RhB) nanohybrids) on the nanopaper platform to... 

The widespread use of pesticides in pest management has boosted the demands for developing highly sensitive probes for on-site monitoring. Herein we presented a sensitive enzyme-free ratiometric probe for determination of methyl parathion (MP), as an organophosphate pesticide using TGA-capped CdTe QDs and carbon dots (CDs). Unlike previous methods in which hydrolysis product of MP is instrumental in the response of the sensors, here, self-assembly of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) on the surface of non-modified yellow-emissive CdTe QDs facilitates the quenching of CTAB-QDs upon addition of MP while the fluorescence intensity of CDs remains constant. Using a smartphone, the ratiometric... 

Discrimination of chiral targets is generally achieved with chiral nanomaterials. However, the limited number of intrinsic chiral nanostructures as well as their complex synthesis procedure has led to the production of chirality-induced nanomaterials as alternatives. Chirality can be induced in nanomaterials by either chirality transfer or the formation of chiral assemblies. Using the latter approach, in this work, we have provided chiral supramolecular assemblies of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) from achiral starting materials. CTAB-QD assemblies showed chiroptical activities, and their orange emission in combination with the blue emission of carbon dots was utilized as a ratiometric chiral... 

We present in situ whole-field measurements of the temperature field using laser-induced fluorescence in a study of bottom-chilled uni-directional solidification of aqueous ammonium chloride. We utilize a two-color, two-dye, ratiometric approach to address the significant spatial and temporal variations of laser sheet intensity field due to refractive index variations caused by the evolving concentration and temperature fields. In our work we take advantage of two temperature sensitive fluorescent dyes with opposite temperature sensitivities in order to increase the overall sensitivity and temperature resolution of the measurements. The resulting temperature sensitivity (about 4% K-1) is...