Design of Hybrid Electrospun Nanofibers Comprised of a Xerogel Functionalized With a Fluorescent Dye for Application as Optical Detection Device

The electrospinning technique allows the production of micro- and nanofibers, which can be used to obtain membranes with high surface area and high porosity. These properties are of importance with regard to the use of nanomaterials in the design of optical detection devices. In this paper, electrospun blends comprised of poly(ethylene oxide) [PEO] and sodium alginate [SA], with and without the adsorption of a fluorescent dye (4-[4-(dimethylamino)styryl]-1-methypyridinium iodide, [DSMI]), were prepared and characterized. PEO/SA/DSMI nanofibers presented higher fluorescence emission intensity and higher absolute quantum yield compared to DSMI in solution. However, DSMI was leached into the solution during the nanofiber crosslinking process. Thus, in order to avoid this leaching, a xerogel [XSB30] was modified with 4-[4-(dimethylamino)styryl]pyridine [DMASP] to generate covalently-anchored dye units [XSB30-DMASP]. The resulting novel material was then electrospun with PEO/SA. Crosslinking of the electrospun...