Haider Butt

Nanotechnology in Textiles

Increasing customer demand for durable and functional apparel manufactured in a sustainable manner has created an opportunity for nanomaterials to be integrated into textile substrates. Nanomoieties can induce stain repellence, wrinkle-freeness, static elimination, and electrical conductivity to fibers without compromising their comfort and flexibility. Nanomaterials also offer a wider application potential to create connected garments that can sense and respond to external stimuli via electrical, color, or physiological signals. This review discusses electronic and photonic nanotechnologies that are integrated with textiles and shows their applications in displays, sensing, and drug release within the context of performance, durability, and connectivity. Risk factors including nanotoxicity, nanomaterial release during washing, and environmental impact of nanotextiles based on life cycle assessments have been evaluated. This review also provides an analysis of nanotechnology consolidation in the textiles market to evaluate global trends and patent coverage, supplemented by case studies of commercial products. Perceived limitations of nanotechnology in the textile industry and future directions are identified.

Reusable, robust, and accurate laser-generated photonic nanosensor.

Developing noninvasive and accurate diagnostics that are easily manufactured, robust, and reusable will provide monitoring of high-risk individuals in any clinical or point-of-care environment. We have developed a clinically relevant optical glucose nanosensor that can be reused at least 400 times without a compromise in accuracy. The use of a single 6 ns laser (λ = 532 nm, 200 mJ) pulse rapidly produced off-axis Bragg diffraction gratings consisting of ordered silver nanoparticles embedded within a phenylboronic acid-functionalized hydrogel. This sensor exhibited reversible large wavelength shifts and diffracted the spectrum of narrow-band light over the wavelength range λpeak ≈ 510-1100 nm. The experimental sensitivity of the sensor permits diagnosis of glucosuria in the urine samples of diabetic patients with an improved performance compared to commercial high-throughput urinalysis devices. The sensor response was achieved within 5 min, reset to baseline in ∼10 s. It is anticipated that this sensing platform will have implications for the development of reusable, equipment-free colorimetric point-of-care diagnostic devices for diabetes screening.

Photonic hydrogel sensors.

Analyte-sensitive hydrogels that incorporate optical structures have emerged as sensing platforms for point-of-care diagnostics. The optical properties of the hydrogel sensors can be rationally designed and fabricated through self-assembly, microfabrication or laser writing. The advantages of photonic hydrogel sensors over conventional assay formats include label-free, quantitative, reusable, and continuous measurement capability that can be integrated with equipment-free text or image display. This Review explains the operation principles of photonic hydrogel sensors, presents syntheses of stimuli-responsive polymers, and provides an overview of qualitative and quantitative readout technologies. Applications in clinical samples are discussed, and potential future directions are identified.

Computational modelling and characterisation of nanoparticle-based tuneable photonic crystal sensors

Photonic crystals are materials that are used to control or manipulate the propagation of light through a medium for a desired application. Common fabrication methods to prepare photonic crystals are both costly and intricate. However, through a cost-effective laser-induced photochemical patterning, one-dimensional responsive and tuneable photonic crystals can easily be fabricated. These structures act as optical transducers and respond to external stimuli. These photonic crystals are generally made of a responsive hydrogel that can host metallic nanoparticles in the form of arrays. The hydrogel-based photonic crystal has the capability to alter its periodicity in situ but also recover its initial geometrical dimensions, thereby rendering it fully reversible and reusable. Such responsive photonic crystals have applications in various responsive and tuneable optical devices. In this study, we fabricated a pH-sensitive photonic crystal sensor through photochemical patterning and demonstrated computational simulations of the sensor through a finite element modelling technique in order to analyse its optical properties on varying the pattern and characteristics of the nanoparticle arrays within the responsive hydrogel matrix. Both simulations and experimental results show the wavelength tuneability of the sensor with good agreement. Various factors, including nanoparticle size and distribution within the hydrogel-based responsive matrices that directly affect the performance of the sensors, are also studied computationally.

Photonic Nanosensor for Colorimetric Detection of Metal Ions

The real-time sensing of metal ions at point of care requires integrated sensors with low energy and sample consumption, reversibility, and rapid recovery. Here, we report a photonic nanosensor that reversibly and quantitatively reports on variation in the concentrations of Pb(2+) and Cu(2+) ions in aqueous solutions (<500 μL) in the visible region of the spectrum (λ(max) ≈ 400-700 nm). A single 6 ns laser pulse (λ = 532 nm) was used to pattern an ∼10 μm thick photosensitive recording medium. This formed periodic AgBr nanocrystal (ø ∼ 5-20 nm) concentrated regions, which produced Bragg diffraction upon illumination with a white light source. The sensor functionalized with 8-hydroxyquinoline allowed sensing through inducing Donnan osmotic pressure and tuning its lattice spacing. The sensor quantitatively measured Pb(2+) and Cu(2+) ion concentrations within the dynamic range of 0.1-10.0 mM with limits of detection of 11.4 and 18.6 μM in under 10 min. The sensor could be reset in 3 min and was reused at least 100 times without compromising its accuracy. The plasmonic nanosensor represents a simple and label-free analytical platform with potential scalability for applications in medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

Metamaterial high pass filter based on periodic wire arrays of multiwalled carbon nanotubes

In this manuscript, we demonstrate metamaterials based on two-dimensional high density arrays of metallic multiwalled carbon nanotubes. They demonstrate a cutoff response toward electromagnetic waves and can be utilized for filtering applications. The plasma frequency, where the metamaterial displayed a sharp change in the reflection and transmission, depends on the geometry of their two-dimensional cubic lattice. A plasma frequency in the near infrared region of 1.5 μm was calculated numerically, for an array consisting of multiwalled nanotubes, having radius of 50 nm and lattice constant of 400 nm. Reflection experiments conducted on the nanoscale structures were in excellent agreement with numerical calculations.

Plasmonic band gaps and waveguide effects in carbon nanotube arrays based metamaterials.

Highly dense periodic arrays of multiwalled carbon nanotubes behave like low-density plasma of very heavy charged particles, acting as metamaterials. These arrays with nanoscale lattice constants can be designed to display extended plasmonic band gaps within the optical regime, encompassing the crucial optical windows (850 and 1550 nm) simultaneously. We demonstrate an interesting metamaterial waveguide effect displayed by these nanotube arrays containing line defects. The nanotube arrays with lattice constants of 400 nm and radius of 50 nm were studied. Reflection experiments conducted on the nanoscale structures were in agreement with numerical calculations.

Optical phase modulation using a hybrid carbon nanotube-liquid-crystal nanophotonic device

The carbon nanotube-liquid-crystal (CNT-LC) nanophotonic device is a class of device based on the hybrid combination of a sparse array of multiwall carbon nanotube electrodes grown on a silicon surface in a liquid-crystal cell. The multiwall carbon nanotubes act as individual electrode sites that spawn an electric-field profile, dictating the refractive index profile within the liquid crystal and hence creating a series of graded index profiles, which form various optical elements such as a simple microlens array. We present the refractive index and therefore phase modulation capabilities of a CNT-LC nanophotonic device with experimental results as well as computer modeling and potential applications.

Carbon Nanotube Based High Resolution Holograms

Carbon nanotubes are used as the smallest possible scattering element for diffracting light in a highly controlled manner to produce a 2D image. An array of carbon nanotubes is elegantly patterned to produce a high resolution hologram. In response to incident light on the hologram, a high contrast and wide field of view CAMBRIDGE image is produced.

Optical microring resonator based corrosion sensing

A refractive index (RI) based corrosion sensor that could measure the oxidation of iron metal to iron-oxide was numerically investigated with a finite element method. The sensor is based on an optical microring resonator with periodically arranged iron nanodisks (NDs) in a ring waveguide (WG). The microring resonator showed a linear resonance frequency shift as iron was oxidized due to RI variation and back scattered light, as compared to conditions with no ND ring. The resonance wavelength shift depended on the number of NDs and the spacing between the NDs. Free spectral range and sensor sensitivity were 40 nm and 517 nm RIU−1 with 10 NDs with 50 nm spacing. Optimization of the sensor parameters allowed a two-fold improvement in sensitivity and achieved a quality factor of 188. The sensitivity and Q-factor showed a linear relationship with increasing ND numbers and spacing. The microring resonator based optical corrosion sensor will find applications in real-time, label-free corrosion quantification.