Chromogenic polymers, which exhibit changes in color in response to external stimuli such as light, heat, mechanical deformation or electric fields, are at the cutting edge of smart material technology.
These materials have potential applications in a range of innovative products, including smart windows that can control transmittance and heat, responsive coatings that change color to indicate temperature changes or possible mechanical failures, reliable sensing platform for the detection of chemicals, and security inks that reveal hidden information under specific conditions. In addition, they provide a direct and space-resolved access to the dynamics of polymeric chains, thus allowing to better understand the behavior of different phases and matrices under certain stimuli or sustained stress.
In this field, our research mainly focuses on the preparation and characterization of chromogenic polymeric systems based on commodity polymers, in order to confer them different chromogenic responses, and implement them in innovative applications. The use of readily available polymer matrices, which can be opportunely functionalized without varying significantly their chemical and mechanical properties, makes the systems we are developing more easily employed in the fabrication of functional devices and integrated with existing technologies.
Among the different chromogenic changes that can occur in the materials we study, we are particularly (but not exclusively!) focused on the variation of the emissive properties, which, compared to other methods based on absorption, can give responses that are more intense and more sensitive to various environmental aspects. The possibility of taking advantage of several phenomena that impact the emissive behavior of flurophores, makes this approach extremely versatile and effective.
Examples of publications:
- “Mechanochromic Polyolefin Elastomers” C. Micheletti, L. Soldati, C. Weder, A. Pucci, J.M. Clough, ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 2024, doi: 10.1021/acsapm.4c00842
- “Blending or Bonding? Mechanochromism of an Aggregachromic Mechanophore in a Thermoplastic Elastomer” C. Micheletti, V.A. Dini, M. Carlotti, F.Fuso, D. Genovese, N. Zaccheroni, C. Gualandi, A. Pucci, ACS Appl. Polym. Mater., 2023, doi: 10.1021/acsapm.2c02037
- "Cocrystalline Phases of Umbelliferone with Syndiotactic Polystyrene: A Route to Achieve Optical Brightening Films" A. Cozzolino, M. Carlotti, A. Pucci, P. Rizzo, G. Guerra, ACS Appl. Polym. Mater., 2024, doi: 10.1021/acsapm.3c02528
- “Emission or scattering? Discriminating the origin of responsiveness in AIEgen-doped smart polymers using the TPE dye” V.A. Dini, D. Genovese, C. Micheletti, N. Zaccheroni, A. Pucci, C. Gualandi, Aggregate, 2023, 4, e373, doi: 10.1002/agt2.373
