Optical sensors hold the promise of providing the coupling between the tangible and the digital world that we are currently experiencing with physical sensors. The core of optical sensor development lies in materials development, where specific requirements of opposing physicochemical properties create a significant obstacle. The sensor material must provide dye retention, while ensuring porosity for analyte transport. The sensor material must provide hydrophobic pockets for dyes to ensure high signal intensity, while remaining fully hydrophobic to measure in water. We have previously reported optical sensors, where we compromised on sensor manufacturing by using a double-layer composite. Here, we report a composite organically modified sol-gel (ORMOSIL) polymer, where polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles (NPs) have been incorporated. This allows all the opposing requirements on optical sensor materials to be fulfilled, and by introducing a hydrophobic reference dye in the fully hydrophobic compartments of the sensor material we show that we can incorporate any hydrophobic fluorophore in this material, even those which are suffering from quenching in water. In this work, PS NPs with 1,13-dimethoxyquinacridinium (DMQA) were immobilized in a composite sol-gel material with pH responsive diazaoxatriangulenium (DAOTA) dyes prior to curing. The multicomponent sensor composite was cured on a polycarbonate hemiwicking substrate, and the resulting fluorescence intensity ratiometric optical pH sensor was shown to have excellent performance. We expect that this type of composite sensor materials will allow the creation of next generation industrial chemosensors.

中文翻译：

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在有机改性的溶胶-凝胶材料中掺入荧光纳米材料–创建单个复合光学pH传感器

光学传感器有望在物理传感器和数字世界之间提供耦合，而我们目前正在使用物理传感器。光学传感器开发的核心在于材料开发，其中相对理化特性的特定要求构成了重大障碍。传感器材料必须保留染料，同时确保用于分析物传输的孔隙率。传感器材料必须为染料提供疏水性口袋，以确保高信号强度，同时保持完全疏水性以便在水中进行测量。我们以前曾报道过光学传感器，在此我们通过使用双层复合材料折衷了传感器制造。在这里，我们报告了一种复合有机改性的溶胶-凝胶（ORMOSIL）聚合物，其中已掺入了聚苯乙烯（PS）纳米颗粒（NPs）。这可以满足对光学传感器材料的所有相反要求，并且通过在传感器材料的完全疏水的隔室中引入疏水性参考染料，我们表明我们可以在该材料中掺入任何疏水性荧光团，即使是那些遭受淬灭的疏水性荧光团在水里。在这项工作中，在固化之前，将具有1,13-二甲氧基喹ac啶鎓（DMQA）的PS NPs固定在具有pH响应的重氮杂三氮烯（DAOTA）染料的复合溶胶-凝胶材料中。将多组分传感器复合材料在聚碳酸酯半芯吸性基板上固化，并且显示出所得的荧光强度比例光学pH传感器具有出色的性能。我们希望这种类型的复合传感器材料将允许创建下一代工业化学传感器。