Plasmonic nanoparticles tuned thermal sensitive photonic polymer for biomimetic chameleon

Abstract

Among many thermo-photochromic materials, the color-changing behavior caused by temperature and light is usually lack of a full color response. And the study on visible light-stimuli chromic response is rarely reported. Here, we proposed a strategy to design a thermo-photochromic chameleon biomimetic material consisting of photonic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) copolymer and plasmonic nanoparticles which has a vivid color change triggered by temperature and light like chameleons. We make use of the plasmonic nanoparticles like gold nanoparticles and silver nanoparticles to increase the sensitivity of the responsive behavior and control the lower critical solution temperature of the thermosensitive films by tuning the polymer chain conformation transition. Finally, it is possible that this film would have colorimetric responses to the entire VIS spectrum by the addition of different plasmonic nanoparticles to tune the plasmonic excitation wavelength. As a result, this method provides a potential use in new biosensors, military and many other aspects.

Photoacoustic Imaging: Contrast Agents and Their Biomedical Applications

“…Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have long been generally employed as PA‐imaging contrast agents due to the LSPR effect, which allows their adjustable and excellent optical absorption . In addition, AuNPs can attain high photothermal conversion effect upon laser illumination and are highly biocompatible, have good chemical inertness, excellent physiochemical properties, and a high extinction coefficient . AuNPs have been synthesized as nanorods, nanoprisms, nanocages, nanospheres, nanostars, nanodisks, bipyramids and rhombic dodecahedra, nanoplates, nanoshells, nanotripods, and nanowreaths …”

Bioinspired Stimuli‐Responsive Color‐Changing Systems

“…The gold/silver nanoparticles coupled with the inverse‐opal‐responsive hydrogel increase the sensitivity of the temperature response and make it possible to show a full color response over the entire visible spectrum in the system (Figure a). It is also demonstrated that by increasing the temperature, a molecular conformation transformation of PNIPAM happens that induce conformation rotation from intermolecular hydrogen bond into intramolecular hydrogen bond …”

“…PNIPAM hydrogels as one of the well‐studied temperature‐responsive color‐changing systems have been coupled with plasmonic nanoparticles, since the latter induce a heat buildup in the hydrogel systems as a result of the light absorption. A design strategy for a thermo‐photochromic composite consisting of photonic poly( N ‐isopropylacrylamide‐ co ‐methacrylic acid) (P(NIPAM‐ co ‐MA)) copolymer and plasmonic nanoparticles has been proposed . The gold/silver nanoparticles coupled with the inverse‐opal‐responsive hydrogel increase the sensitivity of the temperature response and make it possible to show a full color response over the entire visible spectrum in the system (Figure a).…”

“…a) A plasmonic P(NIPAM‐ co ‐MAA) hydrogel film responding to surroundings with color, volume, and conformation variation tuned by plasmonic nanoparticles. Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2016, Springer Nature.…”

Laser-assisted triggered-drug release from silver nanoparticles-grafted dual-responsive polymer

“…Smart polymers that are capable of conformational changes in their network structure and swelling properties in response to one or two external stimuli, have recently become interesting materials in many research areas such as drug delivery, optical and electrical devices, sensors, and separation science [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Among them, those containing metal nanoparticles have received particular attention since they not only simply combine the advantageous properties of both metal complexes and polymers, but also show new attractive properties that do not appear in either [8,9]. For example, palladium nanoparticles embedded into thermo-responsive polymer exhibit a high catalytic stability with higher selectivity for allyl alcohol hydrogenation and cyclohexane oxidation reactions [10].…”