The SeedGel can function as a temperature-sensitive gate for a particular wavelength of light. Here, we see a representation of the light that passes through the gel. As it is heated through a specific range of temperatures, the gel first grows opaque to all but individual colors. Then as the heat rises, it first allows shorter, bluer wavelengths to pass through, then progressively longer, redder wavelengths. Eventually, once the temperature range is exceeded, the gel once again grows opaque to all visible light.
Credit: N. Hanacek/NIST
Color these scientists happy. An exotic gel they studied at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has an unexpected property: The material’s temperature determines which color of light can pass through it.
The material, which the research team calls “SeedGel,” already has shown promise as a multipurpose tool, with applications ranging from batteries to water filters to tissue engineering. The team’s new paper, appearing in Nature Communications, highlights the gel’s newfound capability as a temperature-sensitive light filter. Shine white light at the gel, and depending on the gel’s temperature, only a specific wavelength, or color, will pass through it. A temperature change of less than a tenth of a degree Celsius can be enough to alter the permitted wavelength, which can be any color in the visible range as well as parts of the ultraviolet and infrared.
“Our previous work showed that the SeedGel can transform from clear to opaque and back again, but we did not explore what it can do with color,” said Yun Liu, who is both ..
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