Brushing up on sensors
Jason Locklin and his colleagues from the University of Georgia have developed covalently bound polymer brushes that can bind metal ions when irradiated with UV light. The polymer brushes, containing spiropyran moieties, were synthesised using atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP).
Spiropyrans are a group of photo-switchable organic molecules whose light induced cleavage of the spiro C-O bond results in switching between a colourless closed form and a strongly coloured open form. The binding is completely reversible, and can be switched using visible light. The binding also affords a drastic change in surface wettability and allows for switching between hydrophobic and hydrophilic states.
‘Developing sensors that are reversible and also extremely sensitive is one potential challenge. The binding has to be sufficiently weak to achieve reversibility. We plan to pursue improved techniques to push the detection limit of the sensors, possibly by using fluorescence as detection strategy,’ adds Locklin.
Original publication: Kristen Fries, Satyabrata Samanta, Sara Orski and Jason Locklin, Chem. Commun., 2008.
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