Study On A Photonic Crystal Hydrogel Material For Chemical Sensing

There is intense interest in the applications of photonic crystal hydrogel materials for the detection of glucose, metal ions, organophosphates and so on. In this paper, monodisperse polystyrene spheres with diameters between 100 similar to 440 nm were synthesized by emulsion polymerization. Highly charged polystyrene spheres readily self-assembled into crystalline colloidal array because of electrostatic interactions. Photonic crystal hydrogel materials were formed by polymerization of acrylamide hydrogel around the crystalline colloidal arrays of polystyrene spheres. After chemical modification of hydrogel backbone with carboxyl groups, our photonic crystals hydrogel materials are demonstrated to be excellent in response to pH and ionic strength changes.