Xuanjun Zhang

Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China

Title: Bioinspired CPs/AAO Janus Nanochannel Sensor for Effective Detection of HCHO

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Biography

Dr. Xuanjun Zhang is an associate professor at Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau. He obtained his PhD degree from University of Science & Technology of China. After working as postdoctoral fellow and visiting scientist at Shantou University, National University of Singapore, Linköping University, University of Washington, he started assistant professor position at Linköping University in 2011 and promoted to Decent in 2014. He moved to University of Macau in 2015. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on molecular probes and nanosensors for imaging/sensing and theranostics.  He has published more than 140 SCI papers in international recognized journals such as Angew. Chem.; J. Am. Chem. Soc.; Chem. Sci.; ACS Nano.; Coord. Chem. Rev.; etc. with H-index 41. 

Abstract

Probe reactivity has long been considered to play a key role in artificial nanochannel sensors, but systematic studies of membrane wettability on detection performance are currently lacking. Inspired by biological aquaporins, we developed an effective strategy to regulate the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance by the controllable in situ assembly of coordination polymers (CPs) using BDC-NH2 on anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) nanochannels to promote HCHO detection. We found that the hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance in CP/AAO heterosomes plays significant roles in the effective detection of HCHO. The hydrophobic AAO barrier layer is necessary to support the confinement effect, while the hydrophilic CP surface is favorable for HCHO to access the channels and then condense with the responsive amine to generate a new imine. The optimized CP/AAO Janus device shows excellent performance in the quantitative analysis of HCHO over a wide range from 100 pM to 1 mM by monitoring the rectified ionic current.