Industrial-scale spray layer-by-layer assembly for production of biomimetic photonic systems.

Layer-by-layer assembly is a powerful and flexible thin film process that has successfully reproduced biomimetic photonic systems such as structural colour. While most of the seminal work has been carried out using slow and ultimately unscalable immersion assembly, recent developments using spray layer-by-layer assembly provide a platform for addressing challenges to scale-up and manufacturability. A series of manufacturing systems has been developed to increase production throughput by orders of magnitude, making commercialized structural colour possible. Inspired by biomimetic photonic structures we developed and demonstrated a heat management system that relies on constructive reflection of near infrared radiation to bring about dramatic reductions in heat content.

Conductive polymer films as ultrasensitive chemical sensors for hydrazine and monomethylhydrazine vapor.

Thin films of the electrically conductive polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) were investigated as ultrasensitive chemical sensors for hydrazine and monomethylhydrazine vapor. The threshold limit value for these highly toxic species, which are used extensively as rocket fuels, has recently been lowered to 10 ppb for 8-h exposure, necessitating the development of instrumentation with improved sensitivity. The present study describes the fabrication, calibration, and testing of simple, rugged, polymer-based sensors for detection of hydrazines in both ambient and vacuum environments. For reasonable choices of film thickness, initial resistance, and integration time, it is demonstrated that concentrations in the 0.1-100 ppb range can be monitored with an accuracy of ±20%. The sensor can be utilized for both dosimetric and real-time detection. Reproducible fabrication was achieved using standard spin-coating techniques. The polymer sensors exhibit good specificity to hydrazines in the presence of NH(3), amines, and ambient H(2)O and have a shelf-life of several years when stored in cold, dry conditions.