Robust Dual Optical Sensor for pH and Dissolved Oxygen

As part of moving our optical pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) optical chemosensors toward industrial applications, we decided to explore a many-sensors-in-one principle. It was tested if physical segregation of the optical sensor components in a single sensor polymer could remove cross-talk and quenching. It was found that a design concept with an oxygen-responsive dye in polymer nanoparticles and a pH-responsive dye in an organically modified siloxane polymer resulted in a robust pH/O₂ dual optical sensor. Individually, the O₂-sensitive nanoparticles, a known component for optical DO sensing, and the pH sensor are operational. Thus, it was decided to test if nanoparticles enclosed within the pH-sensitive responsive sol-gel (i) could work together if segregated and (ii) could operate with a single intensity signal that is without a reference signal; developments within industrial optical sensor technology indicate that this should be feasible. The prototype optode produced in this work was shown to have a negligible drift over 60 h, bulk diffusion-limited DO response, and independent response to pH and O₂. On the individual optode, pH calibration was found to show the expected sigmoidal shape and pK_a, while the complexity of the calibration function for the DO signal was significant. While the engineering of the sensor device, optics, and hardware are not robust enough to attempt generic sensor calibration, it was decided to demonstrate the design concept in simple fermentation experiments. We conclude that the dual sensor design with the physical segregation of components is viable.

Luminescence materials for pH and oxygen sensing in microbial cells - structures, optical properties, and biological applications

Luminescence including fluorescence and phosphorescence sensors have been demonstrated to be important for studying cell metabolism, and diagnosing diseases and cancer. Various design principles have been employed for the development of sensors in different formats, such as organic molecules, polymers, polymeric hydrogels, and nanoparticles. The integration of the sensing with fluorescence imaging provides valuable tools for biomedical research and applications at not only bulk-cell level but also at single-cell level. In this article, we critically reviewed recent progresses on pH, oxygen, and dual pH and oxygen sensors specifically for their application in microbial cells. In addition, we focused not only on sensor materials with different chemical structures, but also on design and applications of sensors for better understanding cellular metabolism of microbial cells. Finally, we also provided an outlook for future materials design and key challenges in reaching broad applications in microbial cells.

Temperature Compensation of Oxygen Sensing Films Utilizing a Dynamic Dual Lifetime Calculation Technique

With advances to chemical sensing, methods for compensation of errors introduced by interfering analytes are needed. In this work, a dual lifetime calculation technique was developed to enable simultaneous monitoring of two luminescence decays. Utilizing a windowed time-domain luminescence approach, the response of two luminophores is separated temporally. The ability of the dual dynamic rapid lifetime determination (DDRLD) approach to determine the response of two luminophores simultaneously was investigated through mathematical modeling and experimental testing. Modeling results indicated that lifetime predictions will be most accurate when the ratio of the lifetimes from each luminophore is at least three and the ratio of intensities is near unity. In vitro experiments were performed using a porphyrin that is sensitive to both oxygen and temperature, combined with a temperature-sensitive inorganic phosphor used for compensation of the porphyrin response. In static experiments, the dual measurements were found to be highly accurate when compared to single-luminophore measurements-statistically equivalent for the long lifetime emission and an average difference of 2% for the short lifetimes. Real-time testing with dynamic windowing was successful in demonstrating dual lifetime measurements and temperature compensation of the oxygen sensitive dye. When comparing the actual oxygen and temperature values with predictions made using a dual calibration approach, an overall difference of less than 1% was obtained. Thus, this method enables rapid, accurate extraction of multiple lifetimes without requiring computationally intense curve fitting, providing a significant advancement toward multi-analyte sensing and imaging techniques.

Dually Fluorescent Sensing of pH and Dissolved Oxygen Using a Membrane Made from Polymerizable Sensing Monomers

Using a thermal polymerization approach and polymerizable pH and oxygen sensing monomers with green and red emission spectra, respectively, new pH, oxygen, and their dual sensing membranes were prepared using poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-co-poly(acrylamide) as a matrix. The sensors were grafted on acrylate-modified quartz glass and characterized under different pH values, oxygen concentrations, ion strengths, temperatures and cell culture media. The pH and oxygen sensors were excited using the same excitation wavelength and exhibited well-separated emission spectra. The pH-sensing films showed good response over the pH range 5.5 to 8.5, corresponding to pK(a) values in the biologically-relevant range between 6.9 and 7.1. The oxygen-sensing films exhibited linear Stern-Volmer quenching responses to dissolved oxygen. As the sensing membranes were prepared using thermally initiated polymerization of sensing moiety-containing monomers, no leaching of the sensors from the membranes to buffers or medium was observed. This advantageous characteristic accounts in part for the sensors' biocompatibility without apparent toxicity to HeLa cells after 40 hours incubation. The dual-sensing membrane was used to measure pH and dissolved oxygen simultaneously. The measured results correlated with the set-point values.