Organofluoro-silica xerogels as high-performance optical oxygen sensors.
Ubiquitous oxygen (O(2)) is one of the most important analytes to be assessed in medicine, industry and the environment. Due to a number of advantages, miniaturized optical sol-gel sensors are rapidly replacing older electrochemical sensors. This account provides an overview of fluorinated organically modified silicate (ORMOSIL) xerogels as optical chemical sensors and shows how, together with the dye quenching rate, the subtle structural features of an organofluoro-silica matrix is of fundamental importance in determining the overall sensor performance.
Ciriminna
Rosaria
R
Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, CNR, via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy. rosaria.ciriminna@ismn.cnr.it
Pagliaro
Mario
M