Hydrogel-based photonic crystal materials for sensing application

Abstract

A facile boiling emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization method was used to synthesize monodisperse polymer nanospheres whose diameters can be turned between 100 and 300 nm, and thus could self-assemble into uniform microstructures. Then, a stimuli-sensitive poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(acrylic acid) (PVA/PAA) gelated crystalline colloidal array (GCCA) photonic crystal material was developed. The resulting sensors are able to efficiently diffract the visible light and rapidly respond to various environmental stimuli such as solvent, pH and strain.