Polymer-Encapsulated Reverse Micelles: A Composite Material Design for the Optical Detection of Weak Magnetic Fields

by C. Michael Elliott et al. Chemistry of Materials 17 (2005) In practical sensor applications it is advantageous for the sensor material to be a solid. Yet, even for the simplest intramolecular processes, where no bonds are broken or formed, reactions are generally different in fluids than in solids. For example, in the case of photoexcitation of a molecule and its return to the ground state, the rates of the processes are strongly dependent on the medium's chemical composition and physical state. Sometimes it would be desirable for a material to have macroscopic properties of a solid and nanoscopic (and thus chemical) properties of a fluid. This latter case is the subject of this report. Read the article