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Photonic crystal borax competitive binding carbohydrate sensing motif
Qingzhou Cui1, Michelle M Ward Muscatello, Sanford A Asher
1Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
Abstract:
We developed a photonic crystal sensing method for diol containing species such as carbohydrates based on a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel containing an embedded crystalline colloidal array (CCA). The polymerized CCA (PCCA) diffracts visible light. We show that in the presence of borax the diffraction wavelength shifts as the concentration of glucose changes. The diffraction shifts result from the competitive binding of glucose to borate, which reduces the concentration of borate bound to the PVA diols.

