TUNABLE PHOTONIC GELS

ARPANA BASAK ROLL NO: 06 THIRD SEMESTER MATERIALS SCIENCE

Need For Photonic Gels

Photonic crystals with tunability in the visible or near-infrared region are of interest for controlling and processing light for active components of display, sensory or telecommunication devices.

Introduction
Researchers have created a new structured gel that can rapidly change color in response to a variety of stimuli
Temperature Pressure Salt concentration Humidity

Contd
Objects that reflect different colors depending on which way you look at them already exist But once those objects are manufactured, their properties cannot change. Therefore researchers tried to create a material that would change color in response to external stimuli.

Typical Chemical Sensors in Use

(a) Tubular SnO2 gas sensor (b) Planar semiconductor sensor (c) Ion selective electrode (d) Amperometric gas sensor with liquid electrolyte

Contd
(e) Potentiometric solid electrolyte O2 sensor (f) Amperometric solid electrolyte O2 sensor

Colloidal Crystal Arrays

Various tunable photonic crystals have been demonstrated and many of these are based on colloidal crystal arrays.

Figure shows the micrograph of a colloidal SiO2/polystyrene crystal.

Limited tunability photonic crystals has been accomplished through the addition of homopolymers to change the domain spacing with the addition and selection of nanoparticles for manipulation of the

Ref: Laser Focus World

Main Features Of Structured Gels

Structured gels are those that feature an internal pattern such as layers. A critical component of the structured gel is a material that expands or contracts when exposed to certain stimuli. Those changes in the thickness of the gel cause it to change it to change color , through the entire

Contd
Responsive photonic crystals have been developed for the chemical sensing using the variation in the optical properties due to interaction with their environment. These photonic crystals show tunability over a wide range of wavelengths.

Structure Of Photonic Gels

The block co polymer lamellar stack consists of alternating non swellable glassy block layers and polyelectrolyte block gel layers. A hydrophobic block hydrophilic polyelectrolyte block polymer that forms a simple one dimensional Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007. periodic lamellar structure.

Tuning Mechanism

Fig: Schematic diagram of the structure of photonic gel film and the tuning mechanism
Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007.

Experimental Results (1/8)

Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images of dry photonic gels that were taken after 15 swelling/deswelli Fig: Micrograph of a dry PS-b-QP2VP lamellar photonic film deposited on a silicon wafer. ng cycles. Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007.

Experimental Results (2/8)

The left TEM image is the film stained with Iodine vapor (dark layers are I2stained QP2VP domains) The right image is a reflection-mode laser-scanning confocal microscope image (xz scan) of a swollen film showing defect channels (marked by arrows) across

Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007.

Experimental Results (3/8)

Fig: Images indicate two types of defects

Figure (a) shows vertically oriented defect pores. Figure (b) shows helicoidal screw dislocations.

Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007.

Experimental Results (4/8)

ESEM micrographs of a film at different humidity levels The initial film thickness is 2.9 m at 0% and 10% relative humidity (left) and 18.6 m at 100% relative humidity (right).

Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007.

Experimental Results (5/8)

Features such as defect pores and screw dislocations aid in the rapid uptake and loss of fluids in/out of the lamellar structure. The average thickness of a swollen QP2VP layer can be calculated on the basis of the measured dry micro domain periodicities and the dry film thickness (2.9 m). The calculated thickness of a fully swollen QP2VP gel layer is thus 590 nm, nearly 1,200% of the original thickness. This extremely large change in block-copolymer microdomain period (d = 100640 nm) leads directly to the very large tunability.

Experimental Results (6/8)

On immersion in water, the film immediately exhibit a colour dependent on the extent of crosslinking.

For example, the film is blue (peak = 421 nm) at high crosslinking and red ( peak = 658 the photonic gel film immersed in water. Fig: Photograph of nm) for decreased Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007. crosslinking.

Experimental Results (7/8)

The largest stop band is at 1,627 nm and the smallest is at 283 nm a change of about 575%.
Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007.

Experimental Results (8/8)

The domain spacing and the refractive index contrast (nPS= nP2VP ~ 1.6) of dry photonic gel films are not sufficiently large to show a stop band in the visible range of wavelengths. Figure :Tuning by salt concentration:UV, near IR absorbance spectra of PS-b-QP2VP photonic gels swollen by contact with different concentrations of NH4Cl aqueous Ref: Youngjong Kang et al.,Oct 2007. solution. The grey region represents the

Future Applications
These photonic gels are expected to lead to many novel applications including colorimetric sensors, active components of simple display devices, and electrically controlled tunable optically pumped lasers, photonic switches and multiband filters.

References
Kang Y.,et al,2007 ,Broad-wavelength-range chemically tunable block-copolymer photonic gels, Nature Materials (Vol 6),957. Iyoda, T., et al,2001, Photo-reversible regulation of optical stop bands. Advanced Materials (13) 1295. Z.-Z., Fujishima, A. & Sato, O.,et al,2000, Photochemically tunable colloidal crystals, J. Am. Chem. Soc.( 122),1238712388. Supporting Online Materials:
MIT News Nature Materials

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