Development of an Optical Carbon Dioxide Sensor and Modeling of Metal-Metal Interactions for Sensor Applications

• Main Author: Ericson, Megan
• Other Authors: Cundari, Thomas
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2019
• Subjects: Luminescent Sensing; Neutral Red; Carbon Dioxide Sensing; Trinuclear Au(I) Complexes; Metallophilic Interactions
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1609072/

An investigation of luminescent sensing has been presented. Neutral Red, a common pH luminescent sensor, was shown to be an effective carbon dioxide sensor for the first time. Sensing experiments were performed both through fluorometric and fluorescent microscopy studies, giving rise to the possibility of carbon dioxide sensing for biological applications. Neutral Red was benchmarked against the well-established carbon dioxide sensor Pyranine (8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium salt), HPTS. Neutral Red was shown to have improved response times and higher consistency within the sensing drift compared to HPTS. Trinuclear Au(I) complexes have previously shown to sense metal ions through changes in their luminescent properties. A computational study on d10-d10 interactions, which exist in complexes where Cu+, Ag+, and Au+ are intercalated with [Au(μ-C2,N3-ethylImidazolate)]3 in the form of both half and full sandwich adducts. Binding energies, total density plots, and Morse and Dunham analyses of potential energy surfaces are employed to better understand the metal-metal interactions and the effects of electron correlation, basis set superposition error, and dispersion of metallophilic interactions of the adduct complexes. As metal-metal interactions within these types of complexes become better understood, the tuning of trinuclear Au(I) complexes for luminescent sensing of metals becomes increasingly possible.