4.8 Article

Hierarchically Structured Deformation-Sensing Mechanochromic Pigments

Journal

ADVANCED SCIENCE
Volume 10, Issue 13, Pages -

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202206416

Keywords

mechanochemistry; photonics; pigments; polymers; sensing

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This paper reports a new type of mechanochromic material that overcomes the limitations of traditional mechanochromic polymers by combining photonic structures with covalent mechanophores. These materials can change their reflection spectra upon deformation and provide quantitative detection of the range of changes, with a broad strain detection range.
Mechanochromic materials alter their color in response to mechanical force and are useful for both fundamental studies and practical applications. Several approaches are used to render polymers mechanochromic, but they generally suffer from limitations in sensing range, capacity to provide quantitative information, and their capability to enable broad and simple implementation. Here, is it reported that these problems can be overcome by combining photonic structures, which alter their reflection upon deformation, with covalent mechanophores, whose spectral properties change upon mechanically induced bond scission, in hierarchically structured mechanochromic pigments. This is achieved by synthesizing microspheres consisting of an elastic polymer with spiropyran-based cross-links and non-close-packed silica nanoparticles. A strain of less than 1% can be detected in a shift of the reflection band from the photonic structure, while the onset strain for the conversion of the spiropyran into fluorescent merocyanine ranges from 30% to 70%, creating a broad strain detection range. The two responses are tailorable and synergistic, permitting the activation strain for the mechanophore response to be tuned. The mechano-sensing photonic pigments are demonstrated to be readily incorporated into different polymeric materials of interest and quantitatively probe spatially heterogeneous deformations over a large strain range.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.8
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available