1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Centre for NanoScience Research Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke St. West Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6, Canada. John.Capobianco@concordia.ca.

A NIR-responsive azobenzene-based supramolecular hydrogel using upconverting nanoparticles.

Chem Commun (Camb). 2018 Jun 05;54(46):5847-5850

Authors: Mandl GA, Rojas-Gutierrez PA, Capobianco JA

Abstract

To circumvent the need for direct UV excitation in a supramolecular hydrogel composed of an azobenzene-modified poly(acrylic acid) copolymer and deoxycholate-ß-cyclodextrin as a crosslinker, we modified this system for use with LiYF4:Tm3+/Yb3+ upconverting nanoparticles, which emit UV light upon NIR excitation. A complete gel-sol transition was observed in 60 minutes upon 980 nm irradiation. No change was observed under similar conditions of a control sample over the same period of time.

PMID: 29726556 [PubMed]