Rapid Sensing of Specific Drugs at Sub-Ppb Levels by Using a Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Photoluminescent Soft Material

The intrinsic luminescence of Tb-III in a cholate (Ch) hydrogel has been found to be much higher than that in water or SDS micellar media. We have examined the role of the gel medium in enhancing the emission of Tb-III in detail, and we also report a remarkably simple method for detecting two important drugs, naproxen and propranolol, by using the luminescence of Tb-III in a TbCh hydrogel. The gel medium played a crucial role in the sensing of these drugs, because little sensitization of Tb-III took place in solution. The drug detection could be performed down to sub-ppb levels, both for commercially available tablets and for (spiked) samples of blood serum without any pre-processing. This technique could also be used to differentiate between pairs of closely related drugs, for example, naproxen/ibuprofen and propranolol/atenolol. This rapid (<2min) and sensitive detection technique may make such gels suitable as a general platform for the sensing of appropriate analytes.