Nanoporous films of polydiacetylenes for visual sensing of volatile organic compounds

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Si Wu
• Subject Area: Analytical Chemistry ; Polymer Materials ; Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 267083402

• Final Report Year: 2019

Final Report Abstract

We prepared polydiacetylenes as sensors. Monomer 2 showed photopolymerization and the resulting material showed stimuli-responsive color changes. During the investigation of the azobenzene functionalities to further improve the VOC sensing behavior of the PDA unexpected results were found. It was demonstrated that light can switch azobenzene-containing polymers from solids to liquids reversibly. This work was published in Nature Chemistry, highlighted by more than 20 media all over the world, and was cited about 100 times at the moment.

Publications

• “Photoswitching of Glass Transition Temperatures of Azobenzene-Containing Polymers Induces Reversible Solid-to-Liquid Transitions”, Nature Chemistry, 2017, 9, 145-151
  H. Zhou, C. Xue, P. Weis, Y. Suzuki, S. Huang, K. Koynov, G. K. Auernhammer, R. Berger, H.-J. Butt, S. Wu
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/NCHEM.2625)
• “Spanning the Solar Spectrum: Azopolymer Solar Thermal Fuels for Simultaneous UV and Visible Light Storage”, Adv. Energy Mater., 2017, 7, 1601622
  A. K. Saydjari, P. Weis, S. Wu
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201601622)
• “Co-Assemblies of Polydiacetylenes and Metal Ions for Solvent Sensing”, Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 6929 – 6937
  S. Wu, L. Pan, Y. Huang, N. Yang, Q. Zhang
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1039/c8sm01282b)