Date of Award
5-2020
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Chemistry and Biochemistry; Polymers and High Performance Materials
First Advisor
Jason Azoulay, Ph.D.
Advisor Department
Polymers and High Performance Materials
Abstract
Azo dyes are abundant pollutants that contaminate water supplies and threaten humans, biota, and ecosystem health. Their detection and discrimination are an incredible challenge due to the structural, chemical, and optical similarities between dyes, the complexity of the wastewater environment in which they are found, and their low environmental concentrations. In this work, the inner filter effect (IFE), combined with conjugated polymer array-based sensing, is utilized for the quantitative profiling of these pollutants. The array was constructed using three fluorescent, anionic conjugated polyelectrolytes whose varying spectroscopic properties led to distinct IFE patterns in the presence of the dyes. The unique fluorescence response patterns were identified and processed using linear discriminant analysis (LDA), enabling the individual identification of 12 closely related azo dyes. To demonstrate its potential in environmental applications, the array was used to differentiate between these dyes at nanomolar concentrations in water.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Crater, Erin, "Discriminating Azo Dyes: Conjugated Polymers, the Inner Filter Effect, and Array Sensors" (2020). Honors Theses. 698.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/698
Comments
Honors College Award: Excellence in Research