Turn-on lasing sensory mechanism for vapor detection of amines with metallophenylporphrin doped polyfluorene

We report here a lasing “turn-on” sensory mechanism for highly sensitive vapor detection of amines, utilizing a polyfluorene/palladium tetraphenylporphyrin (PFO/PdTPP) composite film as the sensing medium. A rational ratio of PdTPP could effectively quench the fluorescence of PFO, and the fluorescence recovery occurs after electron donating amine binds to PdTPP, which resulting in a “turn-on” lasing action under optical pump. The lasing “turn-on” action shows sensitivity more than 5 times higher compared with the spontaneous emission (fluorescence) detection. Various amines have different binding intensity with PdTPP as well as diverse fluorescence recovery features brought on the distinction of lasing thresholds and the selectivity of sensing amines.