[An innovative procedure of oxygen detection in medicine, biology, environmental research and biotechnology based on luminescence quenching].

For most (aerobic) animal organisms, oxygen is a mandatory and global substrate. The accurate measurement of oxygen is therefore of importance in the fields of medicine, biology, environmental research and biotechnology. The fact that oxygen is not readily soluble in aqueous media makes its detection more difficult. In contrast to the technique of polarography, the use of luminescence quenching by paramagnetic oxygen, does not consume the oxygen. Another problem of oxygen detection in connection with respiration is the need for very short response times. A third problem, which is associated with luminescence itself, is the fading of the dyes, which results in long-term signal instability. The last two problems can be optimally resolved by adsorbing the luminescence dye onto chromatographic materials--in particular hydrophobic material--having a very large internal surface area, and using the decay time in accordance with the Stern-Volmer equation as oxygen signal. For this, continuous evaluation of the signal is necessary. The carrier material doped with dye is incorporated in a single-grain layer. For measurements in liquids, the detector layer is protected by a black silicone membrane. Two designs are possible for the oxygen detector: (I) a special form using glass fibres, and (II) a miniature detector utilizing optoelectronic solid state technology. Both fluorescence and phosphorescence can be employed, the dye used being excited by light, obviating the need for quartz. The detector layers may be either of high sensitivity for small oxygen concentrations, or have equal sensitivity over the entire oxygen concentration range. There is an optimal figure for the specific amount of adsorbed dye. Application examples are given for respiration and for the determination of oxygen uptake by suspended cells.