A team around YANG Jintao from Zhejiang University of Technology and colleagues from the AS Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering have developed a hydrophilic fluorescent hydrogel‐coated flexible paper/textile film chemosensor which displays a “green‐to‐blue” emission color change upon specific chemical reaction between Hg²⁺ and the grafted thiourea moieties. The porous structures allow for fast capillary‐force‐driven mercury(II) diffusion into the hydrophilic hydrogel matrix, thus enabling visual detection of nearly nM‐level Hg²⁺. On this basis, fluorescent hydrogel‐coated wearable sensing gloves were fabricated, which significantly facilitated visual detection of toxic Hg²⁺‐polluted samples.

CAS news release, September 21, 2018