Detection of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants by using Fluorescence Modulation of Rhodamine 6G/Ag Nanowires

Abstract

Efficient detection of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) has become indispensable because of the constantly increasing widespread use of CWAs to inflict mass deaths. The commonly used mass spectrometry for CWA detection has a few drawbacks, such as the complexity of equipment and out-situ analysis; thus, a simple and intuitive detection method is required to overcome these challenges. Accordingly, in this study, we fabricate Rhodamine 6G (R6G)/Ag nanowires (NWs) for CWA detection based on the sensitive fluorescence changes of R6G caused by the adsorption of different CWA derivatives. In addition, the localized surface plasmon of Ag NWs is applied to enhance the sensitivity of detection due to emission enhancement. The experimental results indicate that the simple CWA detection method proposed in this study can efficiently detect phosphate-type CWAs.