New optical sensor for peroxides using neodymium-doped-ceria nanoparticles via fluorescence-quenching technique

In this paper, neodymium-doped-ceria nanoparticles (Nd-ceria NPs) is studied as optical probe for peroxides via fluorescence quenching technique. Doped-ceria nanoparticles with some lanthanide elements such as neodymium is presented as optical sensing centers for peroxide and consequently for radicals. Our synthesized ceria nanoparticles are formed to have oxygen vacancies which can be considered the receptors for radicals to be sensed or adsorbed. Under near-UV excitation, the visible fluorescent emission intensity at 520 nm is found to be reduced with increasing the concentration of peroxides in the colloidal synthesized nanoparticles' solution through dominantly static quenching impact. Stern-Volmer constants, which are indication for the sensitivity to quenchers, have been calculated for the used Nd-ceria NPs. This work could be helpful in using the studied nanoparticles as sensitive optical sensors for radicals in both biomedical and environmental applications.