Sensors are a kind of tangible devices with the functions of information perception and physical quantity conversion, and are widely used in industrial and agricultural production, social management, public security, national defense and other fields. Today, sensors are the foundation for the realization of the Internet of Everything and a must for the development of artificial intelligence. The development of sensor technology is highly valued.

Unlike ordinary industrial products, sensors are technology intensive and versatile. The threshold of sensor research and development is high and its cycle is long, and it has outstanding interdisciplinary characteristics. To a certain extent, the sensor research and development capability reflects the scientific and technological innovation ability and development level of a country or region.

It should be pointed out that the development of sensitive materials is the key to sensor research and development. The discipline of chemistry, which is committed to creating new substances, plays an increasingly important role in the development of sensors, especially high-end sensors. In the past two decades, Chinese scientist Prof. Fang Yu has led his team in carrying out the whole chain research of “sensitive film sensor detection device” around the core technology of film-based fluorescent sensors (FFSs), achieved major breakthroughs in explosives and illicit drugs detection technologies and device development, and formed a film fluorescence sensing technology system with completely independent intellectual property rights.

In terms of the creation of sensitive materials, Prof. Fang Yu’s group has developed fluorescent sensitive film preparation technology featuring strategies such as chemical bonding, gel mediation, combination design and interface-limited dynamic polymerization, through the fine regulation of sensitive unit molecular structure, thin film sensitive unit aggregation structure and excited state properties of sensitive units, developed high-performance explosives and illicit drugs-sensitive film materials, creating a gaseous phase detection record of 10-15 molar magnitude, and realizing the highly sensitive, fast and reversible detection of a variety of drugs such as methamphetamine and liquid explosives such as Mother of Satan (Triacetone triperoxide, TATP) for the first time.

In the development of FFSs and detection devices, they pioneered the structure of laminated thin-film fluorescent sensors, breaking the monopoly of foreign companies on waveguide technology and achieving a breakthrough in the underlying technology of FFSs.

On the basis of the innovation of sensitive materials and sensor hardware structure, they invented new explosives sensors, illicit drugs sensors, explosives/illicit drugs array sensors, developed SRED series explosives single-module, created SRED drug single-module and SRED explosives/illicit drugs dual-module fluorescence detection devices, creating explosives and illicit drugs detection records with the fastest response, highest sensitivity and the most number of uses of thin-film devices, and realized the created-in-China manufacture of high-end FFSs sensors and detection devices.

These devices and equipment have been applied in many fields and sold abroad, and began to be used by the Chinese military in 2019. The development of FFSs and devices for ultra-sensitive detection of high-risk substances such as chemical warfare agents, nerve agents, and pathogens is also in progress. Based on his original research, Prof. Fang Yu published the world’s first monograph on “Film-based Fluorescence Sensing Technology and Application”.

After selection and rigorous review, the world’s largest and most authoritative chemical organization, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), announced on October 17, 2022 that the FFSs proposed by Prof. Fang Yu’s group were selected as the fourth place in the IUPAC Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry 2022.

As a new segment in sensors, FFSs have become the most promising microtrace material detection technology after ion mobility spectroscopy. There is reason to believe that FFSs will play an increasingly important role in many areas such as serving national construction, safeguarding people’s lives and properties, and improving disease diagnosis capabilities.