Issue 4, 2012

Photonic crystal pH and metal cation sensors based on poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel

Abstract

A facile strategy for the preparation of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) photonic crystal materials with pH and metal cation responses is presented. A solvent-assisted freeze–thaw method is used to form a physically cross-linked PVA gelated crystalline colloidal array (GCCA) photonic crystal. The PVA hydrogel-based photonic crystal sensors were prepared by the introduction of environmentally sensitive components responding to pH and cations into the GCCA system. The photonic crystal pH sensor shows good durability, a large stopband shift, and good adjustability. Further functionalization of 8-hydroxyquinoline makes the interpenetrating networks respond to metal cation concentrations which could be determined from the diffraction color change or precisely monitored by diffraction wavelength shifting using a spectrophotometer. The PVA hydrogel-based photonic crystal sensors could be fabricated in any size and geometry as needed because there is no requirement for a thin sample to allow for penetration of UV light and its processing time is greatly reduced compared with the use of colloidal crystal templates, which has an important significance in the large-scale industrial production in the future.

Graphical abstract: Photonic crystal pH and metal cation sensors based on poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
26 Nov 2011
Accepted
27 Jan 2012
First published
15 Feb 2012

New J. Chem., 2012,36, 1051-1056

Photonic crystal pH and metal cation sensors based on poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel

H. Jiang, Y. Zhu, C. Chen, J. Shen, H. Bao, L. Peng, X. Yang and C. Li, New J. Chem., 2012, 36, 1051 DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ20989F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements