Synthesis of silica inverse opal and evaluation of its potential as an optical chemical sensor for detection of metal salts

In this paper, SiO2 inverse opal photonic crystals, made by the co-assembly of SiO2 and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) microspheres, were used to detect 20 different metal salts with a concentration of 0.002 mol/L. Surprisingly, two different behaviors were observed. Some metal salts caused a redshift in photonic bandgap (PBG) while the others led to a PBG’s blueshift. The observed different behaviors of salts are due to their distinct influence on the lattice constant of the inverse structures which was precisely investigated by analyzing the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy. It has been revealed that the competition between the hydrophilicity of SiO2 and the hygroscopicity of metal salts led to a shift of PBG toward blue or red. The maximum shift in the PBG range was observed for mercury (II) nitrate salt (19 nm), which indicates a sensitivity of 9.5 nm per concentration unit (mM). Furthermore, the lowest displacement of the PBG was observed for the sodium nitrate salt (5 nm), which represents a sensitivity of 2.5 nm/mM. The lowest and highest values of the detection limit (LOD) for mercury (II) nitrate salt and sodium nitrate salt equal 0.193 mmol/L and 0.887 mmol/L, respectively. In addition, according to the calibration curve, with a regression coefficient of R2 > 0.95, there is a linear relationship between the salt concentration and the displacement of the PBG of the structure. Based on the results illustrating the sensitivity of the synthesized inverse opal to the type and concentration of the salts, inverse opal can be regarded as a promising structure to create a new perspective in the field of chemical sensing.