Visual Detection of Thiocyanate Based on Fabry-Perot Etalons with a Responsive Polymer Brush as the Transducer.

The detection of thiocyanate (SCN) is particularly important in industrial effluents and biological fluids because of the toxic nature of SCN. Herein, a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) resonator for visual detection of SCN is presented based on a poly[(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl) trimethylammonium chloride] (PMETAC) brush. The MIM resonator exhibits obvious color change as the concentration of SCN changes, which can be easily distinguished by the naked eyes.

Dynamic Tunable Color Display Based on Metal-Insulator-Metal Resonator with Polymer Brush Insulator Layer as Signal Transducer.

Dynamic color-changing nanomaterials have been widely investigated for applications in fields like optical sensors, wearable activity monitors, smart electronic devices, and anticounterfeiting materials due to the excellent ability to change their optical properties with external variation. Here, a simple metal-insulator-metal (MIM) trilayer Fabry-Perot resonance cavity with a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) brush layer as a responsive element is reported as a thermal-induced colorimetric response platform. The dynamic changes of conformation and physical properties of PNIPAm brush layer in response to external signals give rise to a significant color change of the MIM Fabry-Perot resonance cavity.