Abstract
Optical chemosensors with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) transduction are widely employed, even in complex environments, such as those outside the laboratory. In this context, not only the chemical nature but also the physical form of the receptor layer is particularly relevant. Synthetic receptors as molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are well suited. This is demonstrated here in the case of an SPR sensor platform based on a multimode plastic optical fiber, which is very promising for on site application due to the low dimensions and low cost. A specific MIP was used as the receptor, with high affinity for the substance to be determined, 2-furaldehyde, in water. Here, a medium of high refractive index, i.e., vegetable oil, was considered because of the high interest for its determination in industrial diagnostics. The effects of the MIP layer thickness and the washing extent on the quality of the analytical signal were investigated. Better spectra were generated at the thinner MIP layer, while a lower detection limit is reached with extended washing.
Highlights
The need for low-cost and easy-to-use sensing systems is constantly increasing in different application areas, in particular for health, food and environmental controls and rapid screening of contaminants
In the oil of oil-insulated electrical equipment is an important marker of the degradation of the insulating system. 2-FAL can be present as a byproduct of the thermal degradation of cellulose, so 2-FAL detection in insulating oil is a crucial task for preventing accelerated aging phenomena of oil–paper insulation in transformers [3,4,5]
In order to investigate the effect of the thickness of the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) layer, two kinds of sensors were considered: the first one was prepared on the platform surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-plastic optical fibers (POFs)-A5bare by depositing the prepolymeric mixture at 1000 rpm and the second one was prepared by depositing two layers of MIP (SPR-POF-A1MIP2 and SPR-POF-A2MIP2), each one at a spinning rate of 500 rpm
Summary
Featured Application: The work shows the development of an optical chemosensor based on a synthetic receptor, a molecularly imprinted polymer, for a furanic compound, 2-furaldehyde, with a good possibility of application in liquid samples, even very complex, and with high refractive index as a vegetable oil. This opens the way for the wide application of this sensing technique on site and in matrices of high industrial interest.
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