Reaction-Based Azide Gas Sensing with Tailored Ionic Liquids Measured by Quartz Crystal Microbalance

Affinity Ionic Liquids for Chemoselective Gas Sensing

Selective gas sensing is of great importance for applications in health, safety, military, industry and environment. Many man-made and naturally occurring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can harmfully affect human health or cause impairment to the environment. Gas analysis based on different principles has been developed to convert gaseous analytes into readable output signals. However, gas sensors such as metal-oxide semiconductors suffer from high operating temperatures that are impractical and therefore have limited its applications. The cost-effective quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) device represents an excellent platform if sensitive, selective and versatile sensing materials were available. Recent advances in affinity ionic liquids (AILs) have led them to incorporation with QCM to be highly sensitive for real-time detection of target gases at ambient temperature. The tailorable functional groups in AIL structures allow for chemoselective reaction with target analytes for single digit parts-per-billion detection on mass-sensitive QCM. This structural diversity makes AILs promising for the creation of a library of chemical sensor arrays that could be designed to efficiently detect gas mixtures simultaneously as a potential electronic in future. This review first provides brief introduction to some conventional gas sensing technologies and then delivers the latest results on our development of chemoselective AIL-on-QCM methods.

Probing the Dynamic Interaction between Damaged DNA and a Cellular Responsive Protein Using a Piezoelectric Mass Biosensor

The binding events between damaged DNA and recognition biomolecules are of great interest for understanding the activity of DNA-damaging drugs and the related DNA repair networks. Herein, a simple and sensitive sensor system was tailored for real-time probing of the dynamic molecular recognition between cisplatin-damaged-DNA (cisPt-DNA) and a cellular responsive protein, high-mobility-group box 1 (HMGB1). By integration of flow injection analysis (FIA) with quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), the interaction time-course of cisPt-DNA and HMGB1 domain A (HMGB1a) was investigated. The highly specific sensing interface was carefully designed and fabricated using cisPt-DNA as recognition element. A hybrid self-assembled monolayer consisting of cysteamine and mercaptohexanol was introduced to resist nonspecific adsorption. The calculated kinetic parameters (k_ass and k_diss) and the dissociation constant (K_D) demonstrated the rapid recognition and tight binding of HMGB1a toward cisPt-DNA. Molecular docking was employed to simulate the complex formed by cisPt-DNA and HMGB1a. The tight binding of such a DNA-damage responsive complex is appealing for the downstream molecular recognition event related to the resistance to DNA repair. This continuous-flow QCM biosensor is an ideal tool for studying specific interactions between drug-damaged-DNAs and their recognition proteins in a physiological-relevant environment, and will provide a potential sensor platform for rapid screening and evaluating metal anticancer drugs.

A novel quartz crystal microbalance sensor array based on molecular imprinted polymers for simultaneous detection of clenbuterol and its metabolites

For the rapid and robust detection of both parent clenbuterol (CLB) and its metabolites in swine urine samples, a novel quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor array for CLB detection based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) was developed in this investigation. At first, clenbuterol and the structural analogs of its metabolites, 4-Aminohippuric acid (AHA) and 4-hydroxymandelic acid (HMA), were chosen as molecular templates. Through computational molecular modeling, the optimum ratio between the functional monomer and molecular template was selected. The surface imprinting method was applied to modify QCM electrode surface to graft a thin MIP film. The grafting polymer was characterized by Fourier-transformed infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. After then, an array system composed of three sensors was employed to test the responses with different solutions and the principal component analysis (PCA) was adopted to analyze the corresponding data. As a result, for the designed sensor to clenbuterol, a linear equation y=100.07x-722.96 (R²=0.9928) was found between the sensor frequency shift ΔF and negative logarithm of clenbuterol concentration (-lgC). The limitation of detection (LOD) was 3.0ng/mL, which is lower than the Codex Alimentarius Commission regulations residue limit 10μg/L. The corresponding data of the three template solutions were analyzed by PCA, obtaining 100% recognition. The result demonstrated the feasibility that the developed method could be applied to detect whether the livestock was feed with CLB nutrient redistribution agent by checking the urine samples.

A curcumin derived probe for colorimetric detection of azide ions in water

A curcumin based probe (CUC-P) having an active alkyne moiety has been synthesised for selective detection of azide (N₃⁻) ions in aqueous medium.

Exploiting 1,2,3-Triazolium Ionic Liquids for Synthesis of Tryptanthrin and Chemoselective Extraction of Copper(II) Ions and Histidine-Containing Peptides

Based on a common structural core of 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro[1,2,3]triazolo[1,5-a]pyridine, a number of bicyclic triazolium ionic liquids 1–3 were designed and successfully prepared. In our hands, this optimized synthesis of ionic liquids 1 and 2 requires no chromatographic separation. Also in this work, ionic liquids 1, 2 were shown to be efficient ionic solvents for fast synthesis of tryptanthrin natural product. Furthermore, a new affinity ionic liquid 3 was tailor-synthesized and displayed its effectiveness in chemoselective extraction of both Cu(II) ions and, for the first time, histidine-containing peptides.

Exploring silver ionic liquids for reaction-based gas sensing on a quartz crystal microbalance

This work involves direct synthesis of functional silver ionic liquids in water, and is label-free and chemoselective with superior reactivity toward targeted gases and, most significantly, insensitive to moisture.

A continuous-flow mass biosensor for the real-time dynamic analysis of protease inhibition

A flow injection analysis–quartz crystal microbalance (FIA–QCM) biosensor system was introduced for probing the dynamic interactions during protease inhibition.