Sensors and Actuators B 220 (2015) 326–330

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/snb

Simultaneous color sensing of O2 and pH using a smartphone

Wei Xu a , Sisi Lu a , Yiying Chen a , Tingting Zhao c , Yaqi Jiang a , Yiru Wang a,∗∗ , Xi Chen a,b,∗
a
Department of Chemistry and the MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis & Instrumentation, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,
Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
c
Xiamen Huaxia College, Xiamen 361024, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Using a smartphone with camera function, simultaneous color sensing of oxygen and pH could be realized.
Received 27 January 2015 In the sensing film, chitosan was selected as a matrix, and platinum tetrakis pentafluorophenyl porphin,
Received in revised form 4 May 2015 a sensitive dye towards oxygen with red color emission, was immobilized in this matrix. A sensitive pH
Accepted 9 May 2015
sensing dye, fluorescein isothiocyanate with green fluorescence emission, was selected and covalently
Available online 4 June 2015
bonded to chitosan. In addition, the doped 4,40-bis(2-benzoxazolyl) stilbene with blue color emission in
the matrix played the role of reference. In the red–green–blue (RGB) sensor, the emission color of the
Keywords:
oxygen dye matched the red channel of the smartphone, while the emission of the pH indicator matched
pH
Oxygen its green channel. The reference dye was emitted in the blue channel. All the dyes were excited using
Sensor a 385 nm ultraviolet lamp. The sensor allowed simultaneous sensing of both pH and oxygen in a single
Ratiometric fluorescence RGB digital photo and showed quite good stability.
RGB © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction be permeable to protons [10]. In many cases, in order to prevent

Considerable efforts have been made towards using a smart-
phone as a versatile portable chemical analyzer [1]. Refractive
index, electrochemical signal, light absorption and luminescence
signal [2,3] are coupled with the phone to detect O2 [4], pH, nitrite
[5] and some biomolecules such as glucose and hemoglobin [6].
Among these applications, smartphone-based colorimetric sensors
receive much attention for outstanding features [7], such as easy
miniaturization, anti-electromagnetic interference and the most
attractive ability in the simultaneous sensing of several species
using different probes.
O2 and pH are the most important parameters in biology, aqua-
culture, oceanography and environmental sciences [8,9]. A fast and
robust pH and O2 dual sensor is in high demand for both aqueous
monitoring and biological analysis. However, the development of
a dual sensor for O2 and pH is rather difficult in terms of mate-
rial fabrication. Generally, oxygen sensing requires materials that
are highly permeable for oxygen, but pH sensing requires them to
∗ Corresponding author at: Xiamen University, Department of Chemistry and
the MOE Key Laboratory of Spectrochemical Analysis & Instrumentation, College of
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Siming South Rd. 422, Xiamen 361005, Fujian,
China. Tel.: +86 592 2184530; fax: +86 592 2184530.
∗ ∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: yrwang@xmu.edu.cn (Y. Wang), xichen@xmu.edu.cn
(X. Chen).
fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and decrease of
indicator leaching, researchers incorporate indicators into poly-
mer micro- or nanoparticles, and then embed the sensing particles
into a hydrogel material for good permeability towards protons and
oxygen [11–17]. However, these approaches involve complex pro-
cedures in the preparation of sensing film and a longer response
time. In this study, we demonstrated a robust ratiometric O2 and
pH dual sensor using chitosan as a matrix, and the sensor developed
indicated good sensitivity towards O2 and pH.
2. Experimental
2.1. Material
Chitosan was acquired from J&K (China; degree of deacety-
lation, 18–20%; MW ∼ 100,000–300,000). 4,40-Bis(2-benzoxazolyl)
stilbene (BBS), fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), poly(styrene-
co-acrylonitrile) (PSAN, MW ∼ 165,000), poly(vinylidene chloride-
co-acrylonitrile) (PVDCAN, MW ∼ 150,000) were purchased from
Sigma-aldrich (www.sigmaaldrich.com). Glutaraldehyde (25%).
Acetic acid and Dimethyl formamide (DMF) were purchased from
Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd (Shanghai, China). Buffer solu-
tions were prepared with citric acid/disodium hydrogen phosphate
(C6 H8 O7 /Na2 HPO4 ). All solutions were prepared using ultrapure
water obtained from a Millipore purification system (Millipore,
Ltd., USA). All reagents were of analytical grade and were used

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2015.05.088
0925-4005/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 W. Xu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 220 (2015) 326–330 327

without further purification. Nitrogen and oxygen gases (99.9%)

were obtained from Xiamen Oxygen Manufactory (Xiamen, China).

2.2. Instrument

Fluorescence profiles were collected using an F-4500 fluorom-

eter (Hitachi Co. Ltd., Japan). An ultra bright handhold 365 nm
UV-LED (Spectronic Co., USA) was used as an excitation source. An
iPhone 5s (Apple Inc., USA) was used for recording red–green–blue
(RGB) color images. Two sets of CMOSens SFC 4000 mass flow con-
trollers (Sensirion AG, Switzerland) were used to control oxygen
partial pressure (pO2 ). pH values were measured using a digi-
tal pH meter (CyberScan pH 510, EUTECH). The morphology of
the sensing film was characterized using a a scanning electron
microscope(SEM, s-4800, Hitachi Co. Ltd., Japan) and dynamic light
scatter (DLS, Nano-ZS, Malvern Instruments, U.K.). The image data
were processed with ImageJ software.
Fig. 1. Schematic of the O2 and pH dual sensor using a smartphone.

2.3. Preparation of the dual sensor

its good permeability. In the prepared sensor, chitosan was used
Oxygen sensing particles were prepared using the described as a sensing matrix. As shown in Fig. 1, the upper layer of the
method [14,18]. 250 mg of PSAN were dissolved in 5 mL dimethyl sensor consisted of chitosan in which two kinds of luminescence
formamide and 1 mg PtTFPP was added. 15 mL of ultrapure water beads were incorporated, and the pH sensing dye was covalently
was added dropwise under ultrasonic treatment. The precipitated bonded. Compared with immobilization, the covalent bond of FITC
particles were centrifuged and washed three times using water and to the chitosan film offers two benefits [24]: (1) the FITC reacts
ethanol, and then re-dispersed in 10 mL ethanol. with the accessible surface amino glucose group only, resulting in
Reference particles were prepared as in a previous report [19]. a fast pH response, minimizing inaccessible indicator and increas-
Typically, 40 mg PVDCAN and 5 mL BBS saturated acetone solution ing signal to noise ratio; (2) preventing FITC leaching even under
were dissolved in 20 mL acetone. 60 mL ultrapure water was poured ultrasonics. The use of particles in the preparation of the sensing
into the solution under stirring, and the acetone was removed at film prevented FRET and the self-quenching of fluorescence dyes,
reduced pressure. Chitosan solution was obtained by dissolving and also improved sensor stability.
0.10 g chitosan in 10 mL 1% (v/v) acetic acid solution stirred with The thickness of the sensing film could be measured by SEM, and
a magnetic stirrer at 60 ◦ C until the powder was dissolved. Then, its thickness was found to be about 60 ␮m (Fig. 2), and the infrared
25 ␮L glutaraldehyde, 400 ␮L PtTFPP-PSAN solution (10 mg of the spectra of chitosan-FITC sensor were demonstrated in (Fig. S1).
particles) and 400 ␮L BBS-PVDCAN (0.2 mg of the particles) solution The incorporation of FITC could be evidenced by the disappeared
were slowly added into the chitosan solution at room temperature absorption peak at 2029 cm−1 ( N C S) (iii)).
(about 25 ◦ C). An optical glass slide (10.0 mm × 10.0 mm × 0.9 mm)
was dipped into 100 ␮L of this “cocktail”. The prepared sensing film 3.2. Spectra properties and the sensing evaluation
was dried at room temperature for 12 h, and then immersed in
0.05 mg/mL FITC ethanol solution for 6 h in the dark at ambient Fig. 3 shows the fluorescence spectra of the dual sensor under
temperature. Finally, the film was washed three times using ultra- different pH values (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) and pO2 (0, 0.05, 0.21, 0.5 and
pure water. After these processes, the prepared sensor was stored 1). As shown in Fig. 3a and b, under the excitation wavelength at
in the dark before use. 385 nm, the fluorescence intensity at 645 nm was decreased by the
increase of O2 percentage, and the fluorescence signal at 515 nm
3. Results and discussion increased with the increase of pH value, but the emission intensity
of the reference indicator, BBS, was virtually insensitive towards
3.1. Selection of sensing probes and matrix the change of either pH or oxygen concentration. These results
revealed that there were no obvious interferences in pH or oxygen
In the preparation of the dual sensor for pH and O2 , the fluo-
rescence reagents PtTFPP, FITC and BBS were selected. Due to the
long fluorescence lifetime of PtTFPP and its fluorescence undergo-
ing dramatic dynamic quenching by oxygen, PtTFPP has become
a common oxygen sensing probe with red emission [20–22]. FITC
is a well-established luminescence probe for pH sensing [23,24].
The deprotoned product of FITC emits bright green light, and the
isothiocyano of FITC can covalently bond with chitosan [25]. BBS is
an ultrabright hydrophobic fluorescence dye with short lumines-
cence lifetime which makes it insensitive towards pH and oxygen
[26]. The blue emission of BBS was applied as a reference light to
calibrate the effect of light scatter and excitation fluctuation. The
three dyes, whose chemical structures are shown in Fig. S1, could
be efficiently excited by an ultraviolet light of 385 nm simultane-
ously, and their maximum emission (440, 515 and 645 nm) fitted
the blue, green, red channel of iPhone 5s. Chitosan is a kind of nat-
ural product through the alkaline deacetylation of chitin, which is
used as matrixes for pH [27] and oxygen sensing [28,29] because of Fig. 2. SEM image of the cross section of the sensing film.
328 W. Xu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 220 (2015) 326–330

Fig. 3. Emission spectra of the sensor in different pH (pO2 5% (a)) and pO2 (pH 7 (b)).

Fig. 4. Emission spectra of the sensor (black line) and the typical response for the
Smartphone RGB-channels (the dashed red, green and blue lines). (For interpretation
of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

sensing, and that a single ultraviolet lamp of 385 nm was suitable

in their sensing.
The emission spectra of the sensor was compared to the typical
response of the Smartphone RGB-channels. As shown in Fig. 4, it is
clear that the three emission peaks of the sensor matched the RGB
channels very well.
In order to evaluate the response time in the oxygen sensing, the
dynamic response of the sensor were observed in an atmospheres
witched between pure oxygen and nitrogen (Fig. 5). The response
time (t95 ) of the oxygen sensor from pure oxygen to nitrogen was
found to be 97 s and 34 s from nitrogen to oxygen. The reversibility
of pH sensor was also investigated, as shown in Fig. 5, the dual
sensor exhibited full reversibility towards pH.
The apparent color of the sensor in different pH and pO2 is shown
in Fig. 6a. The information of pH and pO2 could be obtained through
Fig. 6. Color observation of the sensor in various pH and pO2 levels.
the color captured by a Smartphone (Fig. 6a). The experimental
results revealed that the emission intensity at 515 nm increased
when the medium pH increased, and the apparent green color
became correspondingly brighter as shown in Fig. 6c. Simultane-
ously, as shown in Fig. 6b, the red color characterizing the oxygen
concentration became dim and dark with the increase of oxygen,
indicating the obvious fluorescence quenching in a higher oxygen
atmosphere. The reference BBS color is shown in Fig. 6d. Under
room temperature, the resolution of pH and pO2 was up to 0.5 units
and 4.5%.

Fig. 5. Response time and luminescence intensity (645 nm) of the dual sensor at different pO2 (a) and reverisibility of the pH sensor (b).
 W. Xu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 220 (2015) 326–330 329

Fig. 7. (a) The pO2 signal is the ratio of the red channel divided by the blue channel (R/B). (b) The pH signal is the ratio of the green channel divided by the blue channel (G/B).
(For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Table 1
pH and O2 detection in water samples using the dual sensor compared with a commercial pH meter and dissolved oxygen meter.

Sample Color pH sensor pH meter O2 sensor (mg/L) O2 meter (mg/L)

Mineral water 7.3 ± 0.2 7.32 ± 0.05 8.3 ± 0.5 7.49 ± 0.05

Rain water 6.0 ± 0.2 6.24 + 0.05 4.2 ± 0.5 4.34 ± 0.05

Pure water 6.8 ± 0.2 6.74 ± 0.05 7.1 ± 0.5 6.81 ± 0.05

Lake water 7.4 ± 0.2 7.63 ± 0.05 3.6 ± 0.5 3.84 ± 0.05

In the sensing responses, neither oxygen signals (R/B) nor pH
signals (G/B) showed cross-sensitivity to each other. The average
intensity of the three channels could be used to calculate the R/B
nd G/B ratio, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
The calibration curve of pO2 from 0 to 1 was obtained using a
mono-exponential function, as in the following equation:
 
ln R/B − y0 /a
pO2 [%] = −
b of sensor prepared in different batches at pH 4, pO2 = 0.5 is shown
The calibration curve for pH (based on the ratios of green and
blue channel ratios G/B from 4 to 8 approximately follows a four-
parametric sigmoidal fit [16], as in the following equation:
 y + a − G/B 
0
pH = xo − ln ×b
G/B − y0
3.3. Stability of the optical dual sensor
Indicator leaching or photobleaching in a sensing film generally
limits its applications. In order to investigate the leaching situation
of our sensing film, it was immersed into pure water for several
hours and then treated with ultrasonication for 30 min. After this
procedure, the fluorescence intensity of this solution was tested
and the results revealed that the fluorescence intensities of the
solution at 515 nm and 645 nm were both ignorable, indicating that
there was no obvious leaching of PtTFPP or FITC from the sensing
film (Fig. S2). Next, the sensor photostability was studied. We illu-
minated the sensor continuously using an LED with a maximum
emission wavelength of 385 nm for 1 h (Fig. S3). The RSD of the
fluorescence intensity was less than 5%, indicating its good photo-
stability. Generally, it is a common phenomenon that fluorescein
is easy to photobleaching, we performed the compare experiment
between FITC solution and the sensor, the result indicates the pho-
tostability has improved in this sensor, however, the fluorescein
still suffered form photobleaching. In practical applications, the
lifetime of the sensor could be further prolonged since an impulse
trigger was generally applied for the LED emission. The effect of
aging time on the G/B and R/B sensor is shown in Fig. S4. After
being stored in the dark for 30 days, no significant reduction of the
(1) oxygen and pH sensing properties was observed. The color pictures
in Fig. S4, and the R/B and G/B ratio with an RSD < 10% confirmed
that the sensing films was reproducible.
3.4. Sample analysis
(2)
The optical dual sensor was applied in the sensing of pH and
dissolved oxygen in water samples. In the experiments, mineral
water, rain water and the other water samples were selected. The
obtained results were compared with the results from commercial
electrochemical pH meter and oxygen meter. As shown in Table 1,
the results from the optical dual sensor were comparable to those
from the commercial meters. The results from the dual sensor were
easy readout using the G/B and R/B ratio.
4. Conclusions
Simultaneous optical sensing of O2 and pH with chitosan as a
matrix was achieved using a smartphone. In the sensor, triple emis-
sion for the RGB channels included reference dye BBS for blue, pH
sensitive FITC for green and oxygen sensitive PtTFPP for the red
channel were applied. The sensor exhibited good response to dif-
ferent pH values from 4 to 8 and oxygen concentrations from 0
330 W. Xu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 220 (2015) 326–330
to 100%, and indicated good stability towards leaching and photo-
bleaching. Ongoing research will be focused on the development of
a convenient readout multiple-parameter sensor.
Acknowledgements
This research was financially supported by Program for
Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in Univer-
sity (PCSIRT, No. IRT13036), the Fund of Key Laboratory of Global
Change and Marine-Atmospheric Chemistry, SOA, (GCMAC 1204),
the Program of Science and Technology of Xiamen for University
Innovation (3502Z20143025) and NFFTBS (no. J1310024), which
are gratefully acknowledged. Furthermore, we would like to extend
our thanks to Professor John Hodgkiss of The University of Hong
Kong for his assistance with English.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2015.05.088
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Biographies
Wei Xu, received his BS degree from the College of Ocean & Earth Science in Xiamen
University. He is currently a Master student in the Chemistry and Chemical Engi-
neering College at Xiamen University. His research interest is in optical sensors and
their applications.
Sisi Lu, studying at the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen
University for her Master degree. Her research interest is in optical sensors and
their applications.
Yiying Chen, is currently a senior in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering at Xiamen University. Her research interests are in the fields of 3D
graphene and 3D graphene based materials.
Tingting Zhao, graduated from Fuzhou University, and got her Master degree of
Science in 2013. Her research interest is sensing materials for food safety and envi-
ronment.
Yaqi Jiang, received her BS degree in chemistry from Shanghai Jiaotong University,
P.R. China, and her Master degree from Fuzhou University, she finished her doc-
torial course in Chemistry from Xiamen University in June this year. Since 2003,
she holds the position of Associate Professor at Xiamen University. Her current
research is focused on the control of surface structures and tunable properties of
nanocrystallites.
Yiru Wang, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Xiamen
University, China. She received her PhD (1999) in the Department of Chemistry and
Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University, Xiamen. Her research interests are in
the fields of new separation medium, new pretreatment techniques and devices for
solid-phase microextraction.
Xi Chen, is a full Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Xiamen University,
China. He received his PhD (1996) in Analytical Chemistry from the Kyoto Institute of
Technology, Japan. Dr. Chen’s research interests cover electroanalytical chemistry,
bio-chemical sensors and solid-phase microextraction. He has published over 180
scientific research articles in archival scientific journals.