TY - JOUR A1 - Gotor, Raúl A1 - Rurack, Knut A1 - Bell, Jérémy T1 - Fluorescent Paper Strips for the Detection of Diesel Adulteration with Smartphone Read-out JF - Journal of Visualized Experiments N2 - Three fluorescent molecular rotors of 4-dimethylamino-4-nitrostilbene (4-DNS) were investigated for their potential use as viscosity probes to indicate the content of kerosene in diesel/kerosene blends, a wide-spread activity to adulterate fuel. In solvents with low viscosity, the dyes rapidly deactivate via a so-called twisted intramolecular charge transfer state, efficiently quenching the fluorescence. Measurements of diesel/kerosene blends revealed a good linear correlation between the decrease in fluorescence and the increase of the fraction of the less viscous kerosene in diesel/kerosene blends. Immobilization of the hydroxy derivative 4-DNS-OH in cellulose paper yielded test strips that preserve the fluorescent indicator's behavior. Combination of the strips with a reader based on a smartphone and a controlling app allowed to create a simple field test. The method can reliably detect the presence of kerosene in diesel from 7 to 100%, outperforming present standard methods for diesel adulteration. KW - Diesel KW - Kerosene KW - Adulteration KW - Fluorescent sensor KW - Smartphone KW - Test strips PY - 2018 UR - https://www.jove.com/video/58019 DO - https://doi.org/10.3791/58019 VL - 141 SP - e58019-1 EP - e58019-6 PB - MyJoVE Corporation CY - Cambridge, MA, USA AN - OPUS4-46567 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -