Optical sensing of peroxide using ceria nanoparticles via fluorescence quenching technique

This study introduces the application of ceria nanoparticles (NPs) as an optical sensor for peroxide using fluorescence quenching technique. Our synthesized ceria NPs have the ability to adsorb peroxides via its oxygen vacancies. Ceria NPs solution with added variable concentrations of hydrogen peroxides is exposed through near-UV excitation and the detected visible fluorescent emission is found to be at similar to 520 nm. The fluorescent intensity peak is found to be reduced with increasing the peroxide concentrations due to static fluorescence quenching technique. The relative intensity change of the visible fluorescent emission has been reduced to more than 50% at added peroxide concentrations up to 10 wt. %. In order to increase ceria peroxides sensing sensitivity, lanthanide elements such as samarium (Sm) are used as ceria NPs dopant. This research work could be applied further in optical sensors of radicals in biomedical engineering and environmental monitoring. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).