Development of a benzaldehyde sensor utilizing chemiluminescence on nanosized Y2O3.

A chemiluminescence sensor has been proposed for sensitive determination of benzaldehyde, with nanosized Y(2)O(3) as the sensing material. Under optimized conditions, the linear range of the CL intensity vs. the concentration of benzaldehyde vapour is 1.8 ng/mL-10.8 microg/mL (r(2) = 0.9996), with a detection limit of 0.90 ng/mL (signal:noise ratio = 3:1). The sensor also exhibits high selectivity to benzaldehyde because no or weak CL signals have been detected when foreign substances are introduced into the sensor. In addition, the sensor also shows good stability and longer lifetime within 100 h. The results indicate that the proposed sensor, which has high sensitivity and selectivity, shows great potential for the detection of benzaldehyde.