Fluorescence Chemosensor for Determination of Carbon Dioxide and Its Application for Biodegradation Analysis of Polymers

A novel fluorescence sensor has been developed and applied for the determination of carbon dioxide released from the biodegradation of polymer materials and for the evaluation of the biodegradability of polymers. The proposed analytical method is based on the extraordinarily quenching effect of carbonate on fluorescence signal of N,N-diphenylthiourea system. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the fluorescence quenching system performed satisfactorily in a linear detection concentration ranging from 2.00 × 10^?4 to 9.00 × 10^?3 mol L^?1 of carbonate. The detection limit is 8.33 × 10^?5 mol L^?1 for carbonate. This proposed fluorescence system for the selective sensing of carbonate has been successfully applied to determine the biodegradability of polybutylene succinate and related polymers under controlled composting environment with devices assembled in our laboratory. The results exhibited that the biodegradation rate and final biodegradation percentage of biodegradable thermoplastic poly(ester urethane) elastomers, which embodies the block copolymer of poly(butylene succinate) with poly(diethylene glycol succinate), were correlated to the amount of poly(diethylene glycol succinate). In addition, the maximum biodegradation percentage of the testing polymers has reached 45.01%. This research demonstrates the development of chemosensors for rapid, selective, and sensitive detection of carbon dioxide is important and significant for both environmental and biological science.