Since the development and use of organophosphorus compounds as nerve agents and pesticides, methods of dealing with their toxicity to humans have been intensely researched. Smart hydrogels are defined as hydrogels that undergo relatively large and abrupt changes in their architecture or physical properties in response to environmental changes. Specific molecular recognition is a remarkable feature of the smart hydrogels that will allow them to be used to fabricate amazing sensing devices. This research project focused on the design, synthesis, and characterization of smart hydrogel thin films created on gold coated microscope slides. The thin hydrogel layers functionalized with fluorescent coumarin markers will potentially have fast quenching rates when exposed to nerve agent mimics. Fluorescence quenching of the thin films could easily be observed under UV light, enabling the naked eye detection of organophosphorus nerve agents which will allow for real world applications.

Smart hydrogel thin films for organophosphorus nerve agent detection

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.