This Gel Glows When It Detects Pollutants

Thursday, September 3, 2015 - 16:30 in Physics & Chemistry

The color-changing materials under ultraviolet light Tara Fadenrecht via MIT News A team of researchers from MIT has created sensitive metallic polymers that change color in response to chemical or physical variations in their surroundings, according to a study published recently in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The material could be used to detect chemical changes in an environment, or even mechanical changes in structures or fluids, as the study authors note in a press release from MIT News. The gel is made of a common polymer called polyethylene glycol combined with rare earth metals. These form special connections called metal-coordination bonds that make the gel hardy and self-healing, but still very sensitive to its environment. When the bonds are altered by the presence of a particular molecule that the researchers select, the...

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