Probing Temperature on a Microfluidic Chip with Thermosensitive Conjugated Polymer Supramolecules

Abstract

Owing to the unique self- assembled state and the poly(ene-yne) backbone structure, the conjugated polymer displays a phase transition upon environ-mental perturbations, and this results in a brilliant blue-to-red color change in most cases. Unlike other conjugated polymers which require tedious multistep modification processes, PDA can be readily prepared from diacetylene supramolecules in an aqueous-friendly environment by UV irradiation (Scheme 1). In addition, amphiphilic nature of the diacetylene monomer allows fabrication of various nanostructures including nano-tubes, nanowires, nanovesicles, nanohelices, and nanoribbons.The apparent blue-to-red color transition of PDA has served as a foundation for the construction of many colorimetric che-mosensors for the detection of target molecules of interest such as DNAs, proteins, ions, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).