<title>Design of a sulfur dioxide-selective optode membrane based on the fluorescence quenching of anthracene</title>

Abstract

A new reversible optical sensing device is described for the determination of sulfur dioxide based on the fluorescence quenching of anthracene, which is immobilized in plasticized PVC membrane. With the optode membrane described, sulfur dioxide in sample solutions from 6.59 X 10<SUP>-3</SUP> M to 5.23 X 10<SUP>-1</SUP> M can be determined. The calibration curve for sulfur dioxide shows a good correlation with the mathematically-derived formalism and thus confirms the theoretically expected behavior. Besides a high reproducibility of the optical signals, the very short response times less than 30 sec. were realized. The optode membrane presented exhibits a good selectivity for sulfur dioxide.