Noninvasive Viscosity Detection in Beverages with an Aggregation-Induced Emission-Based Molecular Rotor

Abstract

Noninvasive and effective viscosity inspection during the deterioration process is expected to ease the burden of foodborne illnesses, since viscosity is closely related to spoilage extent. In this study, a novel molecular rotor, DPMBEQ, was developed to monitor the beverage microenvironmental viscosity alterations to achieve food safety inspection. This rotor comprised the typical triphenylamine donor and quinolinium acceptor and displayed aggregation-induced emission features, with a large Stokes shift of 184 nm in glycerol. DPMBEQ possesses a highly sensitive response toward viscosity change and features with good photostability and high selectivity in complex media. With the assistance of the fluorescent analytical technique, DPMBEQ achieved identifying the thickening effect of food gum. More importantly, DPMBEQ was explored to visualize viscosity variations during the beverage deterioration process. We expect that our trial can facilitate the continued perfection of food analytical methods toward food quality and safety inspection.