A kinetic model of thin-film fluorescent sensors for strategies to enhance chemical selectivity

Thin film chemical sensors are widely used in environmental and industrial applications due to their scalable fabrication and high sensitivity, however they often suffer from low specificity limiting their ability to discriminate between analytes. In this paper we analyse the influence of molecular diffusion and binding interactions on the optical response of thin film fluorescent chemical sensors. We use a computational model to calculate the dynamics of fluorescence quenching due to sorption and desorption of analyte molecules, and compare this with experimental measurements of a conjugated polymer sensor for nitroaromatic vapour. We find that to increase selectivity, such sensors should use thinner films, analyses should concentrate on the recovery dynamics, and sensor materials should be chosen to provide sensor-analyte combinations where diffusion is hindered by strong sensor-analyte binding interactions.