writer：Wei Lu, Peng Xiao, Jincui Gu, Jiawei Zhang, Youju Huang, Qing Huang and Tao Chen*
keywords：Aggregation-induced emission; Carbon dioxide; Fluorescent sensor; Polyethyleneimine; Tetraphenylethylene
source：期刊
specific source：Sensor Actuat B-Chem, 2016, 228, 551-556
Issue time：2016年

A polymer-based visible and quantitative fluorometric assay for CO₂ gas is constructed using branched polyethyleneimine (PEI) covalently modified with tetraphenylethylene (TPE). The sensing mechanism relies on the reaction of CO₂ with alkylamines of PEI to induce the “solution-to-precipitation” phase transition of the sensory polymer (TPE-PEI), thus resulting in strong aggregation-induced fluorescent emission of TPE-PEI. It works in a relatively environmental benign ethanol medium and avoids the use of toxic amine compounds with unpleasant odor. More importantly, this system is proved to be highly tolerant to possibly coexisting water, carbon monoxide, acid SO₂ and H₂S gases as well as many common volatile organic compounds. These characteristics make the presently developed fluorescent chemosensor hold great potential for many real-world applications.