In
nature, nonequilibrium systems reflect environmental changes,
and these changes are often “recorded” in their solid
body as they develop. Periodic precipitation patterns, aka Liesegang
patterns (LPs), are visual sums of complex events in nonequilibrium
reaction–diffusion processes. Here we aim to achieve an artificial
system that “records” the temperature changes in the
environment with the concurrent LP formation. We first illustrate
the differences in 1-D LPs developing at different temperatures in
terms of band spacings, which can demonstrate the time, ramp steepness,
and extent of a temperature change. These results are discussed and
augmented by a mathematical model. Using scanning electron microscopy,
we show that the average size of the CuCrO
4
precipitate
also reflects the temperature changes. Finally, we show that these
changes can also be “recorded” in the 2-D and 3-D LPs,
which can have applications in long-term temperature tracking and
complex soft material design.
Liesegang patterns that develop as a result of reaction-diffusion can simultaneously form products with slightly different sizes spatially separated in a single medium. We show here a reaction-diffusion method using a dormant reagent (citrate) for developing Liesegang patterns of cobalt hexacyanoferrate Prussian Blue analog (PBA) particle libraries. This method slows the precipitation reaction and produces different-sized particles in a gel medium at different locations. The gel-embedded particles are still catalytically active. Finally, the applicability of the new method to other PBAs and 2D systems is presented. The method proves promising for obtaining similar inorganic framework libraries with catalytic abilities.
A reaction–diffusion system forms a library of different‐size catalytically active Prussian Blue analogue (PBA) particles at each generation of the precipitation pattern. The trick to creating a library of such a highly insoluble product is to add the reactants together (uncommon in an RD system), keeping one as a “dormant” citrate complex and activating on demand with strong acid diffusion (center). More information can be found in the Research Article by B. Baytekin and co‐workers (DOI: 10.1002/chem.202301261).
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