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Chemically modified mesoporous wood: a versatile sensor for visual colorimetric detection of trinitrotoluene in water, air, and soil by smartphone camera

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry volume 411, pages 8063–8071 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

There is great interest in detection of the level of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosive due to its importance in public security and environmental protection fields. The conventional chemical sensors do not simultaneously realize simple, rapid, sensitive, selective, and direct detection of TNT in different medium without sample pretreatment. Here we present a modified wood-based chemical sensor for visual colorimetric detection of TNT in water, air, and soil. The natural wood undergoes a delignified process, which is further functionalized by 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). When TNT solutions are introduced, the wood-based sensor shows a colorimetric transition from light yellow to brown for naked-eye readout because of the generation of Meisenheimer complex between APTES and TNT. The photographs are collected by smartphone camera, and the RGB components are extracted to calculate the adjusted intensity for qualitative detection of TNT. This visual colorimetric sensor for TNT solution displays a linearity in the range of 0.01–5 mM with a limit of detection of 3 μM. In addition, by taking advantage of its inherent mesostructure, the wood-based sensor can be employed for visual detection of TNT vapor as well. Furthermore, it is also able to directly detect TNT in wet soil samples based on capillary action, in which TNT carried by water transports upward along the wood microchannel, triggering the generation of Meisenheimer complex.

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Funding

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41872039 and 41831285), the One-Thousand-Talents Scheme in Sichuan Province, Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2018JY0462), Open Foundation of Chongqing Key Laboratory of Environmental Materials and Remediation Technology (CEK1701), Longshan Scholars Programme of Southwest University of Science and Technology (Grant Nos. 18LZX204 and 17LZX449), Foundation of Chongqing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (project number cstc2015jcyjBX0123), and China Academy of Engineering Physics Foundation (18zh005603).

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Author notes

  1. Yu Zhang and Yanhua Cai contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Energy Materials, Sichuan Co-Innovation Center for New Energetic Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, China

    Yu Zhang, Jinhu Wang, Jiayan Du, Xiufang Qi & Yi He

  2. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Environmental Materials and Remediation Technology, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Yongchuan, Chongqing, 402160, China

    Yanhua Cai

  3. Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, Sichuan, China

    Faqin Dong & Liang Bian

  4. Materials Characterization & Preparation Center, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Hua Li

Authors
  1. Yu Zhang
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  2. Yanhua Cai
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  5. Hua Li
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  9. Yi He
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Correspondence to Yi He.

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Zhang, Y., Cai, Y., Dong, F. et al. Chemically modified mesoporous wood: a versatile sensor for visual colorimetric detection of trinitrotoluene in water, air, and soil by smartphone camera. Anal Bioanal Chem 411, 8063–8071 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-019-02172-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-019-02172-8

Keywords

  • Wood
  • Trinitrotoluene
  • Visualization
  • Colorimetry
  • Smartphone