3d-printed optical volatile organic compound sensors based on donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters

Sara Paniziutti; Maria Vittoria Piras; Annalisa Chiappone; Enrico Podda; Pier Carlo Ricci; Stefania Porcu; Tomas Matulaitis; Eli Zysman-Colman; Francesco Secci

doi:10.1002/smsc.70325

3d-printed optical volatile organic compound sensors based on donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters

Sara Paniziutti
, Maria Vittoria Piras
, Annalisa Chiappone
, Enrico Podda
, Pier Carlo Ricci
, Stefania Porcu
, Tomas Matulaitis
, Eli Zysman-Colman^*
, Francesco Secci^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose a major environmental and health concern, motivating the development of solid-state optical sensing materials that are both responsive and easily manufacturable. Here we introduce a new family of donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters and embed them within photocurable acrylate resins. These materials retain strong solid-state photoluminescence and can be 3D-printed into functional sensing architectures that exhibit reproducible and analyte-dependent, intensity-based optical responses to chemically diverse VOC vapors. This work demonstrates how tailored emitter design and 3D printing can be combined to realize versatile VOC-responsive optical materials.

Original language	English
Article number	e70325
Number of pages	13
Journal	Small Science
Volume	6
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/smsc.70325
Publication status	Published - 21 Jun 2026

Keywords

3D printing
Coumarins
Thermally activated delayed fluorescence
Volatile organic compounds
Volatile organic compound sensors

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10.1002/smsc.70325Licence: CC BY

Panizuitti_2026_SS_3D-printed-optical-VOC-sensors_CC
© 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 7.04 MBLicence: CC BY

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Allan Watson Programme Grant: Boron: Beyond the Reagent
Watson, A. (PI), Morris, R. (CoI), Smith, A. (CoI) & Zysman-Colman, E. (CoI)
UK Research and Innovation
1/05/23 → 30/04/28
Project: Standard
Chemistry EPSRC-JSPS: EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-Core Grant Application
Zysman-Colman, E. (PI)
1/08/18 → 31/01/24
Project: Standard

3D-printed optical VOC sensors based on donor-substituted coumarin TADF emitters (dataset)
Paniziutti, S. (Creator), Piras, M. V. (Creator), Chiappone, A. (Creator), Podda, E. (Creator), Ricci, P. C. (Creator), Porcu, S. (Creator), Matulaitis, T. (Creator), Zysman-Colman, E. (Creator) & Secci, F. (Creator), University of St Andrews, 30 Jun 2026
DOI: 10.17630/f37d9b12-602c-4fb8-b137-186035181f0f
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@article{215a21149ab24941b781e8ee38e7a0ba,

title = "3d-printed optical volatile organic compound sensors based on donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters",

abstract = "Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose a major environmental and health concern, motivating the development of solid-state optical sensing materials that are both responsive and easily manufacturable. Here we introduce a new family of donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters and embed them within photocurable acrylate resins. These materials retain strong solid-state photoluminescence and can be 3D-printed into functional sensing architectures that exhibit reproducible and analyte-dependent, intensity-based optical responses to chemically diverse VOC vapors. This work demonstrates how tailored emitter design and 3D printing can be combined to realize versatile VOC-responsive optical materials.",

keywords = "3D printing, Coumarins, Thermally activated delayed fluorescence, Volatile organic compounds, Volatile organic compound sensors",

author = "Sara Paniziutti and Piras, \{Maria Vittoria\} and Annalisa Chiappone and Enrico Podda and Ricci, \{Pier Carlo\} and Stefania Porcu and Tomas Matulaitis and Eli Zysman-Colman and Francesco Secci",

note = "Funding: The authors acknowledge MIUR for the financial support and the Ph.D. grant NextGeneration EU, Mission 4, Public Administration (PNRR, DM 3517-2022). The authors acknowledge the RSC for the financial support (Collaboration Grant 2023–2024 no. C23-0895140532). The authors also acknowledge the University Research Services Centre (CeSAR)-UniCA for technical support with particular reference to the mass-spectrometry analysis, and NMR service. F. S. acknowledges financial support by the European Union Next Generation EU (PRIN 2022 PNRR - Project P2022YM7F2). The UK authors thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for support (EP/R035164/1, EP/W007517/1, EP/Z535291/1).",

year = "2026",

month = jun,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1002/smsc.70325",

language = "English",

volume = "6",

journal = "Small Science",

issn = "2688-4046",

publisher = "Wiley",

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}

TY - JOUR

T1 - 3d-printed optical volatile organic compound sensors based on donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters

AU - Paniziutti, Sara

AU - Piras, Maria Vittoria

AU - Chiappone, Annalisa

AU - Podda, Enrico

AU - Ricci, Pier Carlo

AU - Porcu, Stefania

AU - Matulaitis, Tomas

AU - Zysman-Colman, Eli

AU - Secci, Francesco

N1 - Funding: The authors acknowledge MIUR for the financial support and the Ph.D. grant NextGeneration EU, Mission 4, Public Administration (PNRR, DM 3517-2022). The authors acknowledge the RSC for the financial support (Collaboration Grant 2023–2024 no. C23-0895140532). The authors also acknowledge the University Research Services Centre (CeSAR)-UniCA for technical support with particular reference to the mass-spectrometry analysis, and NMR service. F. S. acknowledges financial support by the European Union Next Generation EU (PRIN 2022 PNRR - Project P2022YM7F2). The UK authors thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for support (EP/R035164/1, EP/W007517/1, EP/Z535291/1).

PY - 2026/6/21

Y1 - 2026/6/21

N2 - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose a major environmental and health concern, motivating the development of solid-state optical sensing materials that are both responsive and easily manufacturable. Here we introduce a new family of donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters and embed them within photocurable acrylate resins. These materials retain strong solid-state photoluminescence and can be 3D-printed into functional sensing architectures that exhibit reproducible and analyte-dependent, intensity-based optical responses to chemically diverse VOC vapors. This work demonstrates how tailored emitter design and 3D printing can be combined to realize versatile VOC-responsive optical materials.

AB - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose a major environmental and health concern, motivating the development of solid-state optical sensing materials that are both responsive and easily manufacturable. Here we introduce a new family of donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters and embed them within photocurable acrylate resins. These materials retain strong solid-state photoluminescence and can be 3D-printed into functional sensing architectures that exhibit reproducible and analyte-dependent, intensity-based optical responses to chemically diverse VOC vapors. This work demonstrates how tailored emitter design and 3D printing can be combined to realize versatile VOC-responsive optical materials.

KW - 3D printing

KW - Coumarins

KW - Thermally activated delayed fluorescence

KW - Volatile organic compounds

KW - Volatile organic compound sensors

U2 - 10.1002/smsc.70325

DO - 10.1002/smsc.70325

M3 - Article

SN - 2688-4046

VL - 6

JO - Small Science

JF - Small Science

IS - 6

M1 - e70325

ER -

3d-printed optical volatile organic compound sensors based on donor-substituted coumarin thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters

Abstract

Keywords

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Projects

Allan Watson Programme Grant: Boron: Beyond the Reagent

Chemistry EPSRC-JSPS: EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-Core Grant Application

Datasets

3D-printed optical VOC sensors based on donor-substituted coumarin TADF emitters (dataset)

Cite this