Open AccessOpals infiltrated with a stimuli-responsive hydrogel for ethanol vapor sensing
Author(s) -
Riccardo Pernice,
Gabriele Adamo,
Salvatore Stivala,
Antonino Parisi,
Alessandro Busacca,
Dario Spigolon,
Maria Antonietta Sabatino,
Leonardo D’Acquisto,
Clelia Dispenza
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
optical materials express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 66
ISSN - 2159-3930
DOI - 10.1364/ome.3.001820
Subject(s) - materials science , self healing hydrogels , ethanol , optoelectronics , chemical vapor deposition , nanotechnology , chemistry , organic chemistry , polymer chemistry
We report on a novel class of optical materials for ethanol vapor sensing, based on polystyrene opals infiltrated with an innovative stimuli responsive hydrogel. We describe the fabrication process of the bare polystyrene opals and their subsequent infiltration. The optical characterization of the photonic crystal templates was performed to prove the good quality of the samples. Measurements on the infiltrated opals showed that the transmission spectra in the visible range strongly change at varying concentrations of ethanol vapor. The fabricated structures show a linear optical response in the visible range, for high values of ethanol concentration