Susceptibility of chemical sensors to false positive signals remains a common drawback due to insufficient sensor coating selectivity. By mimicking biology, we have demonstrated the use of sequence-specific biopolymers to generate highly selective receptors for trinitrotoluene and 2,4-dinitrotoluene. Using mutational analysis, we show that the identified binding peptides recognize the target substrate through multivalent binding with key side chain amino acid elements. Additionally, our peptide-based receptors embedded in a hydrogel show selective binding to target molecules in the gas phase. These experiments demonstrate the technique of receptor screening in liquid to be translated to selective gas-phase target binding, potentially impacting the design of a new class of sensor coatings.

While a large variety of conjugated polymers exist, polydiacetylenes (PDAs) remain a major research area among scientists due to their interesting optical, spectral, electronic, and structural properties. Heavily reviewed in regards to their stimuli responsive properties, much is known about the assortment of sensing and detection capabilities of PDAs. In this article, we look more upon the structural diversities of polydiacetylenes that have been achieved in recent years, particularly from a hierarchical perspective of 1, 2, and 3-dimensional configurations. In addition, we examine how these different dimensional arrangements of PDAs have heralded clear applications in several key areas. Successful integration of these stimuli-responsive "smart" materials into various geometries has required researchers to have a comprehensive understanding of both the fabrication and synthesis processes, as well as the signalling mechanism for the optical, fluorogenic or spectral transitions. The on-going discovery of new PDA formulations continues to provide interesting structural manifestations such as liposomes, tubes, fibres, organic/inorganic incorporated hybrids and composite structures. By highlighting some of the recent conceptual and technological developments, we hope to provide a measure of the current pace in new PDA derivative development as core components in efficient sensor, imaging and display systems.

Chiral materials composed of organized nanoparticle superstructures have promising applications to photonics and sensing. Reliable customization of the chiroptical properties of these materials remains an important goal; hence, we report a customizable scheme making use of modular gelator components for controlling the helicity and formation of nanofibers over long length scales resulting in hydrogel templates. Controlled growth of gold nanoparticles at spatially arranged locations along the nanofiber is achieved by UV reduction of Au(I) ions on the supramolecular templates. The resulting materials were found to have significant interparticle interactions and well-defined helicity to provide high quality, chiroptically active materials. With this novel approach, the tailored assembly of nanoparticle superstructures with predictable chiroptical properties can be realized in high yield, which we expect to allow rapid advancement of chiral nanomaterials research.