Polymeric nanowires have been made into a “paper” form, in a new method that doesn’t require harsh treatments such as etching, patterning and cleaning, unlike current methods. The “papers” are made by filtering a gel through a Buchner funnel, then peeling the “paper” off from the filter paper.
The paper contains Na+, but if replaced by other cations and subjected to ultraviolet light, the paper changes colour, which is easily distinguishable by the eye, and between different cations – therefore it’s an easy way of sensing different ions (calcium, mercury, lead, manganese etc). Read the article for free until 15th August.
Feng Bai, Zaicheng Sun, Ping Lu and Hongyou Fan, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 14839-14842
Don’t forget to keep up-to-date with all the latest research you can sign-up for the Journal of Materials Chemistry RSS feed or Table of contents alert.
To keep up with the journal news you can Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.
