Jingying is a past Ph.D. student who joined us from Nanjing University in China. Her work was focused on developing a novel methodology for complexometric titrations, by moving from the classical homogeneous phase to a heterogenous emulsion phase. She showed that many of the traditional assumptions and limitations can be overcome, including a strict complex stoichiometry and a careful control of sample pH that are no longer necessary. Her work was very beautiful and marked an important development in a field pioneered by a Swiss researcher, Gerold Schwarzenbach. Jingying was funded by a China Scholarship Grant. She returned to China to become a Research Assistant Professor at SusTech, Shenzhen. Faculty Page.

Thesis title: Ionophore-based Complexometric Titration (2017). DOI Link

Publications:

(1)   Ionophore-Based Titrimetric Detection of Alkali Metal Ions in Serum, Zhai, J.; Xie, X.; Cherubini, T.; Bakker, E. ACS Sensors, 2017, 2, 606–612. DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.7b00165 (open access).

(2)   Reversible pH-independent optical potassium sensor with lipophilic solvatochromic dye transducer on surface modified microporous nylon, Wang, L.; Xie, X.; Zhai, Z.; Bakker, E. Chem. Commun., 2016, 52, 14254 - 14257. DOI: 10.1039/C6CC07841A.

(3)   Complexometric Titrations: New Reagents and Concepts to Overcome Old Limitations, Zhai, J.; Bakker, E. Analyst, 2016, 141, 4252-4261. DOI: 10.1039/C6AN00538A.

(4)   Determination of pKa Values of Hydrophobic pH Sensitive Colorimetric Probes in Nanospheres, Xie, X.; Zhai, J.; Jarolimova, Z.; Bakker, E. Anal. Chem., 2016, 88, 3015–3018. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b04671.

(5)   Ion-Selective Optical Nanosensors based on Solvatochromic Dyes with Different Lipophilicity: From Bulk Partitioning to Interfacial Accumulation, Xie, X.; Szilagyi, I.; Zhai, J.; Wang, L.; Bakker, E. ACS Sensors, 2016, 1, 516–520. DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6b00006 (open access).

(6)   Solvatochromic dyes as pH independent indicators for ionophore emulsion based complexometric titrations, Zhai, J.; Xie, X.; Bakker, E. Anal. Chem., 2015, 87, 11587-11591. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b03526.

(7)   Anion-Exchange Nanospheres as Titration Reagents for Anionic Analytes , Zhai, J.; Xie, X.; Bakker, E. Anal. Chem., 2015, 87, 8347–8352. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b01530.

(8)   Ion-Selective Optode Nanospheres as Heterogeneous Indicator Reagents in Complexometric Titrations, Zhai, J.; Xie, X.; Bakker, E. Anal. Chem., 2015, 87, 2827–2831. DOI: 10.1021/ac504213q.

(9)   Ion Selective Optodes: From the Bulk to the Nanoscale, Xie, X.; Zhai, J.; Bakker, E. Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 2015, 407, 3899-3910. DOI: 10.1007/s00216-014-8413-4.

(10)   Advancing Schwarzenbach’s complexometry: nanoscale titration reagents based on heterogeneous reactions, Zhai, J.; Xie, X.; Bakker, E. Chimia, 2014, 68, 899. DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2014.899 (open access).

(11)   Potentiometric Response from Ion-Selective Nanospheres with Voltage-Sensitive Dyes, Xie, X.; Zhai, J.; Bakker, E. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 16465-16468. DOI: 10.1021/ja5107578 (open access).

(12)   Ionophore-based ion-exchange emulsions as novel class of complexometric titration reagents, Zhai, J.; Xie, X.; Bakker, E. Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 12659 - 12661. DOI: 10.1039/c4cc05754f.

(13)   Ionophore based Ion-Selective Optical NanoSensors Operating in Exhaustive Sensing Mode, Xie, X.; Zhai, J.; Crespo, G. A.; Bakker, E. Anal. Chem., 2014, 86, 8770–8775. DOI: 10.1021/ac5019606 (open access).

(14)   Potassium-Selective Optical Microsensors Based On Surface Modified Polystyrene Microspheres, Xie, X.; Crespo, G. A.; Zhai, J.; Szilagyi, I.; Bakker, E. Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 4592-4595. DOI: 10.1039/C4CC01313A.

(15)   pH Independent Nano-Optodes Based on Exhaustive Ion-Selective Nanospheres, Xie, X.; Zhai, J.; Bakker, E. Anal. Chem., 2014, 86, 2853–2856. DOI: 10.1021/ac403996s.