Abstract:
Responsive photonic crystal hydrogel sensors are renowned for their colorimetric sensing ability and can be utilized in many fields such as medical diagnosis, environmental detection, food safety, and industrial production. Previously, our group invented responsive photonic nanochains (RPNCs), which improve the response speed of photonic crystal hydrogel sensors by at least 2 to 3 orders of magnitude. However, RPNCs are dispersed in a liquid medium, which needs a magnetic field to orient them for the generation of structural colors. In addition, during repeated use, the process of cleaning and redispersing can cause entanglement, breakage, and a loss of RPNCs, resulting in poor stability. Moreover, when mixing with the samples in liquid, the RPNCs may lead to the contamination of the samples being tested. In this paper, we incorporate one-dimensional oriented RPNCs with agarose gel film to prepare heterogeneous hydrogel films. Thanks to the non-responsive and porous nature of the agarose gel, the protons diffuse freely in the gel, which facilitates the fast response of the RPNCs. Furthermore, the \"frozen\" RPNCs in agarose gel not only enable the display of structural colors without the need for a magnet but also improve the cycling stability and long-term durability of the sensor, and will not contaminate the samples. This work paves the way for the application of photonic crystal sensors.
摘要:
响应式光子晶体水凝胶传感器以其比色传感能力而闻名,可用于医疗诊断等许多领域,环境检测,食品安全,和工业生产。以前,我们的小组发明了响应光子纳米链(RPNC),使光子晶体水凝胶传感器的响应速度至少提高2~3个数量级。然而,RPNCs分散在液体介质中,这需要磁场来定向它们以产生结构颜色。此外,在重复使用期间,清洁和再分散的过程会导致缠结,破损,以及RPNC的损失,导致稳定性差。此外,当与液体中的样品混合时,RPNC可能导致被测试样品的污染。在本文中,我们将一维取向RPNC与琼脂糖凝胶膜结合制备异质水凝胶膜。由于琼脂糖凝胶的非响应性和多孔性,质子在凝胶中自由扩散,这有助于RPNC的快速响应。此外,琼脂糖凝胶中的“冷冻”RPNC不仅可以在不需要磁铁的情况下显示结构颜色,还可以提高传感器的循环稳定性和长期耐用性,并且不会污染样品。这项工作为光子晶体传感器的应用铺平了道路。