IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v389y1997i6653d10.1038_39834.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Polymerized colloidal crystal hydrogel films as intelligent chemical sensing materials

Author

Listed:
  • John H. Holtz

    (University of Pittsburgh)

  • Sanford A. Asher

    (University of Pittsburgh)

Abstract

Chemical sensors1 respond to the presence of a specific analyte in a variety of ways. One of the most convenient is a change in optical properties, and in particular a visually perceptible colour change. Here we report the preparation of a material that changes colour in response to a chemical signal by means of a change in diffraction (rather than absorption) properties. Our material is a crystalline colloidal array2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 of polymer spheres (roughly 100 nm diameter) polymerized within a hydrogel13,14 that swells and shrinks reversibly in the presence of certain analytes (here metal ions and glucose). The crystalline colloidal array diffracts light at (visible) wavelengths determined by the lattice spacing2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, which gives rise to an intense colour. The hydrogel contains either a molecular-recognition group that binds the analyte selectively (crown ethers for metal ions), or a molecular-recognition agent that reacts with the analyte selectively. These recognition events cause the gel to swell owing to an increased osmotic pressure, which increases the mean separation between the colloidal spheres and so shifts the Bragg peak of the diffracted light to longer wavelengths. We anticipate that this strategy can be used to prepare ‘intelligent’ materials responsive to a wide range of analytes, including viruses.

Suggested Citation

  • John H. Holtz & Sanford A. Asher, 1997. "Polymerized colloidal crystal hydrogel films as intelligent chemical sensing materials," Nature, Nature, vol. 389(6653), pages 829-832, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:389:y:1997:i:6653:d:10.1038_39834
    DOI: 10.1038/39834
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/39834
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/39834?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raul Mihai Petrașcu & Sever-Gabriel Racz & Dan-Mihai Rusu, 2023. "Mapping Smart Materials’ Literature: An Insight between 1990 and 2022," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-17, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:389:y:1997:i:6653:d:10.1038_39834. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.