Development of Reaction-Based AIE Handy Pen for Visual Detection of Toxic Vapors

Exposure of toxic vapors had a harmful effect on human health. The solid-phase microextraction (SPME) device has been widely used because of its great simplicity, high efficiency, and low cost, especially when used for analysis of gaseous compounds through coupling with GC-MS. In this work, an on-site SPME-like handy detection device (termed AIE Handy Pen) was developed by decoration of toxic vapors responsive AIEgens (TPE-Py, responsive to diethyl chlorophosphite (DCP, nerve agent) or 1,2-dihydroquinoxaline (DQ2), responsive to amine vapor) on the SPME fiber by a sol–gel process. Thanks to its unique solid-state emission characteristics, the AIEgens can be illuminated upon exposure to gaseous compounds on the fiber, and the fluorescence of the reacted AIEgens could be easily visualized under UV-illumination. The detection limit could be as low as 3.4 ppb (for DCP vapors) or 0.2 ppm (for amine vapors) with the minimal detection time of 30 min (for DCP vapors) or 5 min (for amine vapors). This AIE pen could be easily expanded by decoration of different kinds of responsive AIEgens for on-site analysis of various toxic vapors.