Creation of functional polydiacetylene images on paper using inkjet printing technology

Phase-separated structures of tunable thermoresponsive and matrix polymers for large-scale temperature monitoring coatings

Temperature monitoring is significant and fundamental in the fields of healthcare and medicine. In surgery, ultrasonic cutting devices are used for cutting, coagulation, and hemostasis. However, surgeons are concerned about the collateral thermal damages. For example, due to the limited space during endoscopic surgery, thermal damage is caused by touching the surrounding tissues of the targeted organ with the heated shaft of the ultrasonic cutting device. The present work exhibits thermoresponsive and reversible color-change coatings for temperature-distribution imaging. The phase-separated structures of the layered conjugated and matrix polymers enable both the tuned thermoresponsivity and large-scale coating. Layered polydiacetylene (PDA) with intercalated guests exhibits reversible and thermoresponsive gradual color changes from blue to red. A matrix polymer facilitates formation of the phase-separated layered PDA and large-scale coating. Spraying the precursor solution containing the diacetylene monomer, guest molecule, and matrix polymer provides the self-organized large-scale coatings on substrates. The temperature distribution on the shaft of an ultrasonic cutting device is monitored using the coatings. The phase-separated structure of thermoresponsive and matrix polymers can be applied to tunable temperature monitoring in a variety of fields.

Modifying Polydiacetylene Vesicle Compositions to Reduce Non-Specific Interactions

Polydiacetylene (PDA) vesicles provide useful stimuli-responsive behavior as well as by the modular structure afford a means for the design of sensing and delivery systems with tunable target specificity. To reduce inherent non-specific interaction with either anionic or cationic formulations of polydiacetylene vesicles, we explored the use of various lengths of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) amphiphiles for integration and polymerization within PDA vesicles. Our results established that as little as 1% of polyethylene glycol amphiphile integration into anionic vesicles was sufficient to significantly reduce non-specific association with mammalian cells. Similarly integrating a low percent of PEG amphiphile content within cationic vesicles could also significantly reduce non-specific cell association, and moreover reduced cytotoxicity. These results may be prove useful in augmenting PDA vesicles formulations for reduced non-specific interaction which is of particularly interest to enhancing selectivity in vesicles designed with integrated targeting moieties for sensing and drug delivery applications.

The Electrical-Triggered High Contrast and Reversible Color-Changing Janus Fabric Based on Double Side Coating

A sensitive electro-thermochromic Janus fabric driven by voltage is demonstrated via a facial double side coating. The graphene forms a conductive layer that allows Joule heating to supply the thermal resource for the electro-thermochromic behavior of polyester fabric. The thermochromic dye with reversible color-changing property is coated on the opposite side of the graphene layer. The color of electro-thermochromic Janus fabric changes from blue to white with a gradual heating that exceeded 45 °C at the applied voltage of 10 V. The switching rate of color is rapid with the increase of temperature from the room temperature to above 45 °C in 8 s, resulting from the superior resistive heating of the graphene. The electrical conductivity of the electro-thermochromic Janus fabric is not disturbed once undergoing a bending angle range from 30° to 150° and the temperature remains stable after 1000 bending cycles which clearly indicates the excellent flexibility of the fabric. The steady signal in the heating/cooling curve is observed after 500 cycles, pointing out the outstanding durability of the electro-thermochromic Janus fabric under the supplied voltage. It is realizable that the color of electro-thermochromic Janus fabric is triggered accurately by varying the supplied voltage. The simplicity of this design makes it attractive for the application of flexible electro-thermochromic textile, such as active visual camouflage, personal thermal management, and information displays.

Tuning chromatic response, sensitivity, and specificity of polydiacetylene-based sensors

In this review, we provide an overview of six major techniques to tune the sensitivity and specificity of polydiacetylene-based sensors.

Dark current reduction strategies using edge-on aligned donor polymers for high detectivity and responsivity organic photodetectors

The difluorobenzene-incorporated polymer showed strong ordering in edge-on mode, resulting in a significant reduction in the leakage current, and thus PFBT2OBT:PC₇₀BM devices showed highly improved detectivity of over 10¹³ Jones at −2V.