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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Cerebral Blood Oxygenation Measurement Based on Oxygen-dependent Quenching of Phosphorescence
Published on: May 4, 2011
Long-Lived Room-Temperature Phosphorescence for Visual and Quantitative Detection of Oxygen
Yusheng Zhou1, Wei Qin1, Cheng Du1
1PCFM Lab, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
Abstract:
An unconventional organic molecule (TBBU) showing obvious long-lived room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) is reported. X-ray single crystal analysis demonstrates that TBBU molecules are packed in a unique fashion with side-by-side arranged intermolecular aromatic rings, which is entirely different from the RTP molecules reported to date. Theoretical calculations verify that the extraordinary intermolecular interaction between neighboring molecules plays an important role in RTP of TBBU crystals. More importantly, the polymer film doped with TBBU inherits its distinctive RTP property, which is highly sensitive to oxygen. The color of the doped film changes and its RTP lifetime drops abruptly through a dynamic collisional quenching mechanism with increasing oxygen fraction, enabling visual and quantitative detection of oxygen. Through analyzing the grayscale of the phosphorescence images, a facile method is developed for rapid, visual, and quantitative detection of oxygen in the air.
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