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Gasoline adulteration is a frequent problem world-wide, because of the chance of quick, maximized profits. However, addition of cheaper ethanol or hydrocarbons like kerosene does not only result in economic damage but also poses problems for vehicles and the environment. To enable law enforcement forces, customers or enterprises to uncover such a fraudulent activity directly upon suspicion and without the need to organize for sampling and laboratory analysis, we developed a simple strip-based chemical test. Key to the favorable performance was the dedicated materials tailoring, which led to test strips that consisted of a cellulose support coated with silica, passivated with hexamethyldisilazane and functionalized covalently with a molecular probe. The probe fluoresces brightly across a broad solvent polarity range, enabling reliable quantitative measurements and data analysis with a conventional smartphone. The assays showed high reproducibility and accuracy, allowing not only for the detection of gasoline adulteration but also for the on-site monitoring of the quality of commercial E10 gasoline.
Bifunctional fluorescent molecular oxoanion probes based on the benzoxadiazole (BD) chromophore are described which integrate a thiourea binding motif and a polymerizable 2-aminoethyl methacrylate unit in the 4,7-positions of the BD core. Concerted charge transfer in this electron donor-acceptor-donor architecture endows the dyes with strongly Stokes shifted (up to >250 nm) absorption and fluorescence. Binding of electron-rich carboxylate guests at the thiourea receptor leads to further analyte-induced red-shifts of the emission, shifting the fluorescence maximum of the complexes to ≥700 nm. Association constants for acetate are ranging from 1–5×105 M−1 in acetonitrile. Integration of one of the fluorescent probes through its polymerizable moiety into molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) grafted from the surface of submicron silica cores yielded fluorescent MIP-coated particle probes for the selective detection of antibiotics containing aliphatic carboxylate groups such as enoxacin (ENOX) at micromolar concentrations in highly polar solvents like acetonitrile.
Early detection of cancer is essential for successful treatment and improvement in patient prognosis. Deregulation of post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins, especially phosphorylation, is present in many types of cancer. Therefore, the development of materials for the rapid sensing of low abundant phosphorylated peptides in biological samples can be of great therapeutic value. In this work, we have synthesised fluorescent molecularly imprinted polymers (fMIPs) for the detection of the phosphorylated tyrosine epitope of ZAP70, a cancer biomarker. The polymers were grafted as nanometer-thin shells from functionalised submicron-sized silica particles using a reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerisation. Employing the combination of fluorescent urea and intrinsically cationic bis-imidazolium receptor cross-linkers, we have developed fluorescent sensory particles, showing an imprinting factor (IF) of 5.0. The imprinted polymer can successfully distinguish between phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated tripeptides, reaching lower micromolar sensitivity in organic solvents and specifically capture unprotected peptide complements in a neutral buffer. Additionally, we have shown the importance of assessing the influence of counterions present in the MIP system on the imprinting process and final material performance. The potential drawbacks of using epitopes with protective groups, which can co-imprint with targeted functionality, are also discussed.