Polymeric photonic crystal platform for organic amines detection based on enzyme inhibition

Background

The extensive use of organic amines in industries has led to significant environmental concerns. Traditional detection methods, such as chromatography, are highly accurate but costly, time-consuming, and require specialized equipment, limiting their practical use in routine environmental monitoring. This underscores the need for portable, cost-effective, and user-friendly detection technologies.

Results

In this study, a novel sensor for organic amine detection based on inverse opal polymer photonic crystals (IOPPCs) has been facile designed and fabricated. By integrating urease-catalyzed reactions, the IOPPCs exhibited notable structural color changes in response to different amine solutions. Since the urease-catalyzed hydrolysis of urea directly affects the pH of the environment, the IOPPCs with a large surface area exhibit redshifted reflection peaks, enabling enhanced qualitative and semi-quantitative detection of organic amines. Notably, selective detection of ethylenediamine has been achieved at the low concentration from 1 × 10⁻⁹ mol L⁻¹ to 1 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹. To enhance user accessibility, the platform incorporates an existing mobile app to convert the structural color data into quantitative information.

Significance and novelty

The sensor platform demonstrates excellent resistance to interference, strong applicability, and reusability, highlighting its potential for real-time, on-site detection of organic amines. This has significant practical implications for environmental and public health monitoring.