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Soft and transient magnesium plasmonics for environmental and biomedical sensing

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Abstract

Due to its controlled reaction with water and biofluids, Mg as a dissolvable conductor has enabled the development of many transient electronic devices. In addition, Mg is a novel plasmonic material with high extinction efficiency, but its transientoptical properties have not been explored thoroughly. In this study, for the first time, we exploit the transient and tunable plasmonic properties of Mg in environmental and biomedical sensor applications. We used soft nanoimprint lithography to fabricate flexible and large-area Mg plasmonic structures that can be applied on the human skin. Their resonance (or color) can be tuned in the visible range by gradual Mg dissolution in a water fluid or vapor-rich environment; these structures can be easily implemented as passive optical sensors without the need for complex electronic circuits or a power supply. We demonstrate the applications of our optical sensors in the accurate monitoring of environmental humidity and physiological detection of sweat loss on the human skin during exercise. Our devices could be used as decomposable/resorbable optical sensors and can help minimize long-term health effects and environmental risks associated with consumer device waste, which will lead to many new possibilities in transient photonic device applications.

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Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges support from the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20150790), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11604151, 61734003, and 61521001), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 30917015103).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Ruomu Li & Li Gao

  2. School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, 411201, China

    Suxia Xie

  3. School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Labao Zhang, Run Xin & Xinran Wang

  4. Advanced Materials Division, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Liqiang Li

  5. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Deying Kong & Lan Yin

  6. Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Qiang Wang & Xing Sheng

  7. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77204, USA

    Cunjiang Yu

  8. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Zongfu Yu

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  1. Ruomu Li
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  2. Suxia Xie
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  3. Labao Zhang
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  9. Lan Yin
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  10. Cunjiang Yu
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  11. Zongfu Yu
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  12. Xinran Wang
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  13. Li Gao
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Correspondence to Xinran Wang or Li Gao.

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Li, R., Xie, S., Zhang, L. et al. Soft and transient magnesium plasmonics for environmental and biomedical sensing. Nano Res. 11, 4390–4400 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2028-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2028-6

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