| Title: | Quantitative volatile organic compound sensing with liquid crystal core fibers |
| Author(s): | Schelski K; Reyes CG; Pschyklenk L; Kaul PM; Lagerwall JPF; |
| Address: | "Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, 162a Avenue de la Faiencerie, 1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Institute of Safety and Security Research, University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, von-Liebig-Strasse 20, 53359 Rheinbach, Germany. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100661 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2666-3864 (Electronic) 2666-3864 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Polymer fibers with liquid crystals (LCs) in the core have potential as autonomous sensors of airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with a high surface-to-volume ratio enabling fast and sensitive response and an attractive non-woven textile form factor. We demonstrate their ability to continuously and quantitatively measure the concentration of toluene, cyclohexane, and isopropanol as representative VOCs, via the impact of each VOC on the LC birefringence. The response is fully reversible and repeatable over several cycles, the response time can be as low as seconds, and high sensitivity is achieved when the operating temperature is near the LC-isotropic transition temperature. We propose that a broad operating temperature range can be realized by combining fibers with different LC mixtures, yielding autonomous VOC sensors suitable for integration in apparel or in furniture that can compete with existing consumer-grade electronic VOC sensors in terms of sensitivity and response speed" |
| Keywords: | core-sheath fibers electrospinning gas sensor liquid crystal non-woven fiber mats volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing wearable technology; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINESchelski, Katrin Reyes, Catherine G Pschyklenk, Lukas Kaul, Peter-Michael Lagerwall, Jan P F eng 2022/01/15 Cell Rep Phys Sci. 2021 Dec 22; 2(12):100661. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100661" |
