Microfluidic Construction of Responsive Photonic Microcapsules of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal for Colorimetric Temperature Microsensors

As alternatives to electronic devices, optically active structures from responsive nanomaterials offer great opportunity for building up smart functional sensors. This work reports on the construction and application of photonic microcapsules (PMCs) for colorimetric temperature microsensors, enabling miniaturization for injectable local micro-area sensing and integration for large-area sensing. Monodispersed PMCs are produced by in situ photopolymerization of hydrogel shells of cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC)-in-water-in-oil double emulsion droplets prepared using microfluidic devices, with controllable physical structures and chemical compositions. Constructed PMCs exhibit thermal responsive structural color according to the selective Bragg reflection of CLC's periodical helical structures within the microdroplet's spherical confinement. CLC mixtures with phase transition temperature of 56.0 and 37.8 degrees C have been prepared and employed to construct PMCs exhibiting obviously visible and quantifiable optical response in 52-56 and 33-38 degrees C, respectively. The PMCs have been successfully applied for monitoring the living cell extracellular temperature via co-incubation with cell suspension, and for sensing human forehead temperature via a flexible device from assembled PMCs. These PMCs can be flexibly applied in either micro-environment or large-area surface, enabling wide applications for a precision temperature monitoring of biological activities (e.g., cells or organs), optoelectronic devices working conditions (e.g., temperature indicators under extreme conditions), etc.