Design and synthesis of nonconjugated monodendrons with triarylamine repeating units.

[structure: see text] Design and synthesis of new monodendrons with triarylamine repeating units, which are potentially useful in charge transport applications, are described. The triarylamines are connected through a nonconjugated linkage to facilitate independent electronic tuning of the monomer units.

Fluorescent optical sensors.

Optical sensors are prepared by immobilizing an indicating layer on the distal end of a fiber optic cable. Dyes, enzymes, and antibodies can all be incorporated into the layer using a variety of immobilization techniques. Much of the present work is devoted to developing novel indicating schemes by combining appropriate recognition schemes into polymeric matrices.

Fabrication of patterned sensor arrays with aryl azides on a polymer-coated imaging optical fiber bundle.

Arrays of sensing regions are photodeposited on the distal tip of a single imaging optical fiber. First, the distal surface of the fiber is spin-coated with a thin film of poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate). The fluorophor is then derivatized with a photoreactive group and subsequently immobilized in a finite area of the film by discrete illumination. Dye incorporation occurs only in the illuminated areas, creating distinct regions of analyte-sensitive fluorescent dye at the fiber's distal end. This paper describes both the chemistry and the manipulations required to make an optical microarray and demonstrates the technique with pH sensors. The fabrication of a four-sensor array is described along with performance data.

Combined imaging and chemical sensing using a single optical imaging fiber.

Despite many innovations and developments in the field of fiber-optic chemical sensors, optical fibers have not been employed to both view a sample and concurrently detect an analyte of interest. While chemical sensors employing a single optical fiber or a noncoherent fiberoptic bundle have been applied to a wide variety of analytical determinations, they cannot be used for imaging. Similarly, coherent imaging fibers have been employed only for their originally intended purpose, image transmission. We herein report a new technique for viewing a sample and measuring surface chemical concentrations that employs a coherent imaging fiber. The method is based on the deposition of a thin, analyte-sensitive polymer layer on the distal surface of a 350-microns-diameter imaging fiber. We present results from a pH sensor array and an acetylcholine biosensor array, each of which contains approximately 6000 optical sensors. The acetylcholine biosensor has a detection limit of 35 microM and a fast (< 1 s) response time. In association with an epifluorescence microscope and a charge-coupled device, these modified imaging fibers can display visual information of a remote sample with 4-microns spatial resolution, allowing for alternating acquisition of both chemical analysis and visual histology.