Electrospun Fibers for Colorimetric Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds via Polyfluorene–Quinoxaline Copolymer Photoproperties Change

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Abstract We report a volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing platform based on electrospun nanofibers of a single-component PFO–quinoxaline donor–acceptor copolymer, in which donor and acceptor units are covalently integrated within one conjugated chain. Unlike multicomponent systems governed by intermolecular geometry, this design enables VOC-responsive modulation of intrinsically defined excited-state energy flow and charge-transfer photophysics. By tuning the PFO/QX composition, the copolymer showed systematic changes in emission color and lifetime, reflecting composition-dependent donor-to-acceptor interactions. When processed into nanoporous electrospun nanofibers, these chain-level photophysical responses became strongly amplified by enhanced analyte accessibility and nonequilibrium chain packing. In particular, the 95:5 composition exhibited distinct blue-to-green emission changes, red-shifted photoluminescence, and shortened fluorescence lifetimes upon exposure to chloroform and tetrahydrofuran vapors, whereas spin-coated films showed only minor responses. These results show that VOCs can directly perturb the photophysical balance within a molecularly integrated donor–acceptor copolymer and demonstrate a simple strategy for visually readable optical gas sensing based on single-chain electronic structure and nanofiber morphology.
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Electrospun Fibers for Colorimetric Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds via Polyfluorene–Quinoxaline Copolymer Photoproperties Change | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Electrospun Fibers for Colorimetric Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds via Polyfluorene–Quinoxaline Copolymer Photoproperties Change Jiyoung Boo, Jaedoo Nam, Seongwan Bae, Jae Yong Lee, Jinho Choi, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9158955/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We report a volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing platform based on electrospun nanofibers of a single-component PFO–quinoxaline donor–acceptor copolymer, in which donor and acceptor units are covalently integrated within one conjugated chain. Unlike multicomponent systems governed by intermolecular geometry, this design enables VOC-responsive modulation of intrinsically defined excited-state energy flow and charge-transfer photophysics. By tuning the PFO/QX composition, the copolymer showed systematic changes in emission color and lifetime, reflecting composition-dependent donor-to-acceptor interactions. When processed into nanoporous electrospun nanofibers, these chain-level photophysical responses became strongly amplified by enhanced analyte accessibility and nonequilibrium chain packing. In particular, the 95:5 composition exhibited distinct blue-to-green emission changes, red-shifted photoluminescence, and shortened fluorescence lifetimes upon exposure to chloroform and tetrahydrofuran vapors, whereas spin-coated films showed only minor responses. These results show that VOCs can directly perturb the photophysical balance within a molecularly integrated donor–acceptor copolymer and demonstrate a simple strategy for visually readable optical gas sensing based on single-chain electronic structure and nanofiber morphology. Electrospinning Conjugated polymer nanofiber Donor-acceptor copolymer Intermolecular charge transfer Colorimetric gas sensing Full Text Supplementary Files FinalSupportingInformation.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 07 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 25 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 18 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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