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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1997  > June  >
Symposium: Applications of Inorganic Photochemistry
Dramatic Demonstration of Oxygen Sensing by Luminescence Quenching
Kristi A. Kneas, Wenying Xu, J. N. Demas
Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22901

B. A. DeGraff
Department of Chemistry, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807

Cover
June 1997
Vol. 74 No. 6
p. 696

Abstract
Luminescence-based oxygen sensors are of great interest, especially in biomedical areas, but explaining their operation to the inexperienced can be difficult. We describe a dramatic demonstration that illustrates the principles of oxygen sensors using luminescence quenching of a transition metal complex, either [Ru(bpy)3]Cl2, (bpy= 2,2'-bipyridine) or [Ru(Ph2phen)3]Cl2, (Ph2phen = 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline). The demonstration is simple, quick, and comprehensible even by non-chemists. It requires three solutions of the Ru(II) complex, a black light, oxygen, and some dry ice. One solution is air saturated and two are oxygen saturated. The visual differences in emission intensity for the different oxygen concentrations are easily discernible even to a large audience. By dropping a piece of dry ice into one of the oxygen saturated solutions, the oxygen is removed in seconds, and a spectacular increase in emission intensity can be observed. Students and faculty alike find this a clever demonstration of quenching and its analytical applications.

See Correction to this article.

More Information
*  Citation
Kneas, Kristi A.; Xu, Wenying; Demas, J. N.; DeGraff, B. A. J. Chem. Educ. 1997 74 696.
*  Keywords
Inorganic Chemistry, Materials Science, Photochemistry, Luminscence
*  History
Created:
Last Updated:
July 28, 1999
June 23, 2005
Link to Correction added (May 2004).
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1997 > June > Page 696


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