Issue 10, 2020

Disposable paper strips for carboxylate discrimination

Abstract

We describe a method for the differentiation of carboxylate anions on disposable paper supports (common printer paper, filter paper, chromatography paper), based on differential patterns of interactions between carboxylates and a fluorescent sensing system. The sensor was built from commercially available components, namely a polycationic fifth generation amine-terminated poly(amidoamine) dendrimer (PAMAM G5) and a small organic fluorophore (calcein) through non-covalent interactions. The assay's physical dimensions were chosen to conform to the microwell plate standard so detection could be carried out on widely available plate reader instrumentation. The sensing complex was first deposited in spots on a paper support to prepare the sensor strip; a carboxylate solution was then loaded on each spot. Nuanced changes in fluorescence were associated with carboxylate binding to the PAMAM dendrimer, characteristic of the structure and affinity of each carboxylate. Such signal changes, interpreted through Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), contained enough information to recognize and successfully discriminate most anions in the panel. Among the substrates we tested, chromatography paper was the most promising. The relationship between the structure of the carboxylates and the patterns giving rise to their differentiation was also discussed. Finally, the long-term stability (“shelf life”) of the pre-assembled [calcein·dendrimer] sensing system was found to be excellent when deposited on paper support.

Graphical abstract: Disposable paper strips for carboxylate discrimination

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
17 sij 2020
Accepted
15 ožu 2020
First published
16 ožu 2020

Analyst, 2020,145, 3505-3516

Author version available

Disposable paper strips for carboxylate discrimination

Y. Xu and M. Bonizzoni, Analyst, 2020, 145, 3505 DOI: 10.1039/D0AN00137F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements