Demonstration of Selective Single-Barium Ion Detection with Dry Diazacrown Ether Naphthalimide Turn-on Chemosensors

Single-molecule fluorescence imaging (SMFI) of gas-phase ions has been proposed for “barium tagging,” a burgeoning area of research in particle physics to detect individual barium daughter ions. This has potential to significantly enhance the sensitivity of searches for neutrinoless double-beta deca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS sensors 2021-01, Vol.6 (1), p.192-202
Main Authors: Thapa, Pawan, Byrnes, Nicholas K, Denisenko, Alena A, Mao, James X, McDonald, Austin D, Newhouse, Charleston A, Vuong, Thanh T, Woodruff, Katherine, Nam, Kwangho, Nygren, David R, Jones, Benjamin J. P, Foss, Frank W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Barium
Chemistry
Ether
Ethers
Fluorescent Dyes
Ions
Naphthalimides
Science & Technology - Other Topics
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Summary:Single-molecule fluorescence imaging (SMFI) of gas-phase ions has been proposed for “barium tagging,” a burgeoning area of research in particle physics to detect individual barium daughter ions. This has potential to significantly enhance the sensitivity of searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) that is obscured by background radiation events. The chemistry required to make such sensitive detection of Ba2+ by SMFI in dry Xe gas at solid interfaces has implications for solid-phase detection methods but has not been demonstrated. Here, we synthesized simple, robust, and effective Ba2+-selective chemosensors capable of function within ultrapure high-pressure 136Xe gas. Turn-on fluorescent naphthalimide-(di)­azacrown ether chemosensors were Ba2+-selective and achieved SMFI in a polyacrylamide matrix. Fluorescence and NMR experiments supported a photoinduced electron transfer mechanism for turn-on sensing. Ba2+ selectivity was achieved with computational calculations correctly predicting the fluorescence responses of sensors to barium, mercury, and potassium ions. With these molecules, dry-phase single-Ba2+ ion imaging with turn-on fluorescence was realized using an oil-free microscopy technique for the first timea significant advance toward single-Ba2+ ion detection within large volumes of 136Xe, plausibly enabling a background-independent technique to search for the hypothetical process of 0νββ.
ISSN:2379-3694
2379-3694
DOI:10.1021/acssensors.0c02104