Detecting an invisible threat

Artwork by PG Anita Toscani

Ingenious ways in which even low levels of carbon monoxide can be monitored through colour changes or a fluorescence response.

A recent review in the leading journal, Chemical Communications, on the detection of carbon monoxide highlights the ingenious ways in which even low levels of this toxic gas can be monitored through colour changes or a fluorescence response.

Anita Toscani and Dr James Wilton-Ely, from the Department of Chemistry, worked with Prof. Ramón Martínez-Máñez and colleagues at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, to describe the recent advances in detecting this colourless, odourless and tasteless gas. While the dangers of carbon monoxide are well known, it is also produced naturally in our bodies as a gaseous signalling molecule that regulates important cellular processes. However, the detection of such low levels of carbon monoxide in this environment is extremely challenging and is the subject of ongoing work in the groups of Dr Wilton-Ely and Prof. Martínez-Máñez.

Carbon monoxide is found in air as a consequence of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and this is represented in the cover image (designed by Anita) through a power station, which also provides an analogy for its generation in cells. The design of one of the leading probes is represented along with its interaction with diatomic molecules of carbon monoxide. In the background, the ‘sea’ of fluorescence is an actual microscope image of the light emitted by one of the sensing systems in response to the presence of carbon monoxide in cells. The article is open access and can be found here (Chem. Commun. 2016, 52, 5902).