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There is a crucial need for effective and easily dispersible colloidalmicrosensors able to detect local pH changes before irreversible damages causedby demineralization, corrosion, or biofilms occur. One class of suchmicrosensors is based on molecular dyes encapsulated or dispersed either inpolymer matrices or in liquid systems exhibiting different colors upon pHvariations. They are efficient but often rely on sophisticated and costlysyntheses, and present significant risks of leakage and photobleaching damages,which is detrimental for mainstream applications. Another approach consists inexploiting the distance-dependent plasmonic properties of metallicnanoparticles. Still, assembling nanoparticles into dispersible colloidalpH-sensitive sensors remains a challenge. Here, we show how to combineoptically active plasmonic gold nanoparticles and pH-responsive thin shellsinto "plasmocapsules". Upon pH change, plasmocapsules swell or shrink.Concomitantly, the distance between the gold nanoparticles embedded in thepolymeric matrix varies, resulting in an unambiguous color change. Billions ofmicron-size sensors can thus be easily fabricated. They are non-intrusive,reusable, and sense local pH changes. Each plasmocapsule is an independentreversible microsensor over a large pH range. Finally, we demonstrate theirpotential use for the detection of bacterial growth, thus proving thatplasmocapsules are a new class of sensing materials.

Plasmonic elastic capsules as colorimetric reversible pH-microsensors