Chemical instabilities enable systems to store energy, and when triggered, release energy quickly to accomplish productive work. Elastic instabilities for example are the reason the Venus flytrap is able to snap close fast enough to capture an insect. Chemical instabilities are what enable nerves to rapidly carry information through the body. While chemical instabilities are commonly exploited in biology, they have not been significantly considered for synthetic systems. We have now discovered how to use chemical instabilities to drive long-range chemical transport through swollen polymer films, at rates far exceeding conventional diffusive transport which may provide a new a paradigm for enhanced chemical sensing. In a specific example, we have used chemical instabilities to form a sensor which is 30-times more sensitive to nerve agent stimulants than a similar sensor which does not exploit chemical instabilities.

Polymer coatings containing embedded dynamic chemical potential gradients for directing rapid chemical transport

256th National Meeting (2018)

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