Sensitive and selective detection of harmful gas is an important task in environmental monitoring. In this work, a gas sensor based on cataluminescence (CTL) for detection of acetaldehyde was designed by using nano-NiO as the sensing material. The sensor shows sensitive response to acetaldehyde at a relatively low working temperature of 200 °C. The linear range of CTL intensity versus acetaldehyde concentration is 0.02–2.5 mg/L, with a limit of detection of 0.006 mg/L at a signal-to-noise ratio of three. Mechanism study shows that electronically excited CO2 is the excited intermediate for CTL emission during the catalytic oxidation of acetaldehyde on the NiO surface. The proposed sensor has promising application in monitoring acetaldehyde in residential buildings and in the workplace.

A new fluorescent probe 1, bearing a pyridine group as receptor for H+and a coumarin dye as fluorophore, was synthesized and characterized by1H NMR,13C NMR, ESI-Ms and single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The probe exhibited fluorescence ratiometric response to acidic pH. With decreasing of the pH from 8.32 to 2.49, the fluorescence emission spectra exhibited large red shift from 541 to 631 nm, with the emission ratios (I541/I631) changed dramatically from 25.9 to 0.08, and the pKavalue was calculated to be 5.45. Probe 1 exhibited high selectivity to pH, other interference species including metal ions and amino acid exerted no visible effect on probe 1 detecting pH. The intracellular pH imaging applications proved that the probe is suitable for monitoring acidic pH fluctuations in living cells.