Construction of a colorimetric sensor array based on the coupling reaction to identify phenols

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Phenols pose significant risks to human health and ecosystems.
• Existing analytical methods struggle to simultaneously identify diverse phenol mixtures.
• Development of selective and sensitive detection methods for environmental phenols is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a colorimetric sensor array for the simultaneous identification of six common environmental phenols.
• To utilize nanozymes as electronic tongues for distinct phenol fingerprinting.
• To establish a pattern recognition method for accurate phenol identification in complex samples.

Main Methods:

• A colorimetric sensor array employing iron-carbon (Fe-N-C) and copper-carbon (Cu-N-C) nanozymes was designed.
• Nanozymes catalyzed a reaction involving hydrogen peroxide, phenols, and 4-aminoantipyrine (4-AAP) to generate colorimetric signals.
• Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was applied for pattern recognition and phenol identification.

Main Results:

• The sensor array generated unique color variation patterns (fingerprints) for each of the six target phenols: 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, 4-nitrophenol, phenol, 3-chlorophenol, 4-chlorophenol, and o-nitrophenol.
• Distinct response patterns were observed even at low concentrations (50 nM) for each phenol.
• The sensor array demonstrated high accuracy in distinguishing these six phenols in actual environmental samples.

Conclusions:

• The developed nanozyme-based colorimetric sensor array provides a powerful tool for the simultaneous and accurate identification of multiple environmental phenols.
• This approach offers a sensitive and selective electronic tongue for environmental monitoring.
• The findings highlight the potential of nanozyme-based sensor arrays combined with pattern recognition for complex chemical mixture analysis.