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Sustainable natural chlorogenic acid as a functional molecular sensor toward viscosity detection in liquids

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Abstract

Liquids are perishable at ease during the long-term transportation and storage processes, non-invasive and in situ inspection method is urgent to be developed. In consideration of the important role of viscosity, one kind of sustainable natural product chlorogenic acid (CA) extracted from honeysuckle has been used as a versatile optical sensor for viscosity determination during the liquid spoilage process. The natural molecule was conducted by the O-diphenyl and carboxylic acid ester groups in coincidence, a typical twisted intramolecular charge transfer phenomenon was formed. This sensor features wide adaptability, high selectivity, good sensitivity, and excellent photo stability in various liquids. And CA displays a larger Stokes shift, high viscosity sensitive coefficient (0.62), and narrower energy band. The rotatable conjugate structure can be acted as the recognition site, and the bright fluorescent signal of CA is specifically activated when in the high viscous micro-environment. Inspired by this objective phenomenon, CA has been applied to detect the thickening efficiency of various food thickeners. More importantly, the viscosity fluctuations during the deterioration stage of liquids can be screened through non-invasive and in situ monitoring. We expected that more natural products can be developed as molecular tools for liquids safety investigation, and fluorescent analytical methods can be expanded toward interdisciplinary research.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (20212BAB214031), the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students of Jiangxi Province (202210419011), Science and Technology Program of Jiangxi Provincial Education Bureau (GJJ211032, GJJ2209316), Jiangxi Post-doctoral Scientific Research Program (2021KY57), Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students of Jinggangshan University (JDX2022150), Doctoral Research Foundation of Jinggangshan University (JZB2006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological Engineering of Jiangxi Province, Jinggangshan University, Ji’an, 343009, Jiangxi, China

    Lingfeng Xu, Wenyan Xu, Ziyin Tian & Fei Deng

  2. State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, College of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Lingfeng Xu

  3. School of Food Science and Engineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Natural Products and Product Safety, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Yanrong Huang

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  1. Lingfeng Xu
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Correspondence to Lingfeng Xu.

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Xu, L., Xu, W., Tian, Z. et al. Sustainable natural chlorogenic acid as a functional molecular sensor toward viscosity detection in liquids. Photochem Photobiol Sci 22, 1245–1255 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-023-00365-w

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