Complex emulsion droplets consisting of hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon oils dispersed in water have been shown to exhibit iridescent structural color via interference from total internal reflection, and the color is tunable based on the size, shape, composition, and orientation of the droplets. Our study explores the structural color properties of complex emulsion droplets and their application to colorimetric chemical sensing through the use of an α- amylase responsive surfactant solution composed of γ-cyclodextrin, Triton X-100 surfactant, and Capstone FS-30 surfactant. We aim to demonstrate proof-of-concept sensitivity of biphasic oil-in-water emulsion droplets for colorimetric sensing through the correlation of reflected structural color patterns to droplet shape and size.

Date Published: 2 March 2020
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 11292, Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics XIII, 112920X (2 March 2020); doi: 10.1117/12.2545151

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 11292:
Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics XIII
Georg von Freymann; Eva Blasco; Debashis Chanda, Editor(s)