| Jun 26, 2024 |
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(Nanowerk Information) A analysis staff from the College of Jena has developed a small optical lens, only some millimetres in dimension, whose refractive behaviour modifications within the presence of fuel. As reported by the researchers within the journal Nature Communications (“Micro-optical elements from optical-quality ZIF-62 hybrid glasses by hot imprinting”), this “intelligent” behaviour of the micro-lens is enabled by the hybrid glass materials from which it’s made.
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The molecular construction of the lens consists of a three-dimensional lattice with cavities that may accommodate fuel molecules, thereby affecting the optical properties of the fabric.
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| PhD pupil Oksana Smirnova is investigating optical microlenses constructed from hybrid glasses. (Picture: Jens Meyer, College of Jena)
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Multi-responsive Glasses
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“With support from the Carl Zeiss Foundation, we are developing so-called multi-responsive materials,” explains Lothar Wondraczek, Professor of Glass Chemistry on the College of Jena. “In the case of the hybrid glass lens, this means that it refracts light more or less strongly depending on whether gas is absorbed in the lens material.” The problem was to switch classical glass-forming strategies to those particular supplies.
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“The metal-organic frameworks we used here,” Wondraczek continues, “are being researched and developed as materials for gas storage or separation.” Doctoral candidate and lead creator of the publication Oksana Smirnova, provides: “However, most of these substances decompose when heated and are therefore very difficult to form.”
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Along with Dr Alexander Knebel, junior analysis group chief on the Chair of Glass Chemistry, the Jena researchers first needed to develop an appropriate synthesis course of for extremely pure supplies. They then needed to determine the optimum situations beneath which the fabric could possibly be formed.
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“We melt the material and then transfer it into a 3D-printed mould, where it is pressed. This process allows us to choose almost any desired shape,” the chemist explains. “We deliberately chose the lens as the shape,” she continues, as a result of “even the smallest impurities are noticeable in a lens as they directly affect the optical properties.”
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This new course of now essentially permits for all kinds of shapes and geometries, extending past the precise utility as micro-lenses, Wondraczek explains. “Because these multi-responsive materials react to multiple influences simultaneously, they could be used for logical circuits, for example,” the supplies scientist describes potential purposes for such parts. “This specifically means that two conditions are linked for the observable reaction,” he explains. “If a light beam hits the lens and gas is absorbed in the lens material simultaneously, then the light is refracted in a particular way, providing combined feedback.”
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Membranes for fuel separation, whose optical properties change when fuel molecules are current, are additionally conceivable. Such optical parts could possibly be utilized in sensor expertise, making measurement strategies extra environment friendly, space-saving, and “intelligent.”
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