Development of an optical platform based on photoluminescent films on glass and commercial optical fibers for potential application in gas sensing of biomedical interest

• Grant number: 23/07987-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2024
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Inorganic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Danilo Manzani
• Grantee: Francis Dayan Rivas Garcia
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/08111-2 - Development of rare earth based light converters: luminescent markers, optical sensors, and amplifiers, AP.TEM

Abstract

Exhaled air (consisting of gases, VOCs, and aqueous microgots), has been an important matrix for the detection of lung diseases, for instance, Covid-19. However, in the biochemical processes that occur in the body during the onset or disappearance of a disease, gases and VOCs can be emitted, which can move from the blood into the lung alveoli, and thus they be detected in the exhaled air. Gas chromatography is important in this area because of its ability to identify, separate, and quantify gases at trace levels; however, it is a large volume sensor system, difficult to detect in real time, and with little possibility to be generalized to any environment. Thus, this project aims at developing an optical platform on glassy systems based on the strategy of chemical functionalization of Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) followed by immobilization of advanced photoluminescent materials such as Lanthanide Complexes, Lanthanide-based Metal-Organic Frameworks (Ln-MOFs) and perovskites. The intent is to use light emission as the transduction mechanism for the design of miniaturized and integrated optical chemical sensors with potential detection of exhaled air biomarkers. At first glass systems such as monoliths and commercial optical fibers will be arranged for chemical functionalization, which aims to obtain a self-organized film of phosphonic acids as light emission, proposed in order to optimize the interactions of the substrate with the sensing layer and circumvent its reproducibility during the deposition. Simultaneously, structural, optical, and electronic characterization techniques will be used to demonstrate the effective formation of photoluminescent films. Subsequently, gas sensing tests will be explored, mainly in the approach of biomarkers of diseases in exhaled air (acetone, limonene) to obtain advances in the design of potential portable optical chemical sensors that integrate features such as sensitivity, selectivity, and real-time analysis.