Invited Paper BI-ThM1
Bioinspired Adaptive Reconfigurable Material Systems based on Smart Hydrogels

Thursday, October 25, 2018, 8:00 am, Room 101B

From the cellular level up to the body system level, living organisms cooperatively sense to adapt to or self-regulate the local environment, and can also harvest energy from the environment to keep alive and perform various functionalities. These graceful capabilities arise from the chemo-mechanical actions that transform the molecular configuration changes to micro/macroscopic mechanical motions, in response to environmental cues. Inspired by these unique adaptive abilities, we have developed a series of adaptive material systems, which are based on stimuli-responsive hydrogels capable of adaptively reconfiguration. This presentation will introduce three novel functionalities that this broad-based platform has demonstrated, including ultrafast optical sensing of chemical and biological species and autonomous regulating of local conditions. Living organisms ubiquitously display colors that adapt to environmental changes, relying on the soft layer of cells or proteins. Inspired by this strategy, we created a simple and universal adaptive color platform based on a hydrogel interferometer (Adv. Mater. 2018). Such interference colors provide a visual and quantifiable means of revealing rich environmental metrics. The single material-based platform has advantages of remarkable color uniformity, fast response, high robustness, and facile fabrication. Its versatility has been demonstrated by diverse applications: a volatile-vapor sensor with highly accurate quantitative detection, a colorimetric sensor array for multi-analyte recognition, breath-controlled information encryption, and a colorimetric humidity indicator. Portable and easy-to-use sensing systems are demonstrated with smartphone-based colorimetric analysis. Second, based on this platform, we further realized a novel function - fully autonomous separation of target molecules from a mixture fluid such as wastewater or biofluid.