title: Temperature and saturation dependence in the vapor sensing of butterfly wing scales.
abstract: The sensing of gasses/vapors in the ambient air is the focus of attention due to the need to monitor our everyday environment. Photonic crystals are sensing materials of the future because of their strong light-manipulating properties. Natural photonic structures are well-suited materials for testing detection principles because they are significantly cheaper than artificial photonic structures and are available in larger sizes. Additionally, natural photonic structures may provide new ideas for developing novel artificial photonic nanoarchitectures with improved properties. In the present paper, we discuss the effects arising from the sensor temperature and the vapor concentration in air during measurements with a photonic crystal-type optical gas sensor. Our results shed light on the sources of discrepancy between simulated and experimental sensing behaviors of photonic crystal-type structures. Through capillary condensation, the vapors will condensate to a liquid state inside the nanocavities. Due to the temperature and radius of curvature dependence of capillary condensation, the measured signals are affected by the sensor temperature as well as by the presence of a nanocavity size distribution. The sensing materials used are natural photonic nanoarchitectures present in the wing scales of blue butterflies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, 1525 Budapest, PO Box 49, Hungary. Electronic address: kertesz.krisztian@ttk.mta.hu.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kertész
authors.affiliation: Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, 1525 Budapest, PO Box 49, Hungary. Electronic address: http://www.nanotechnology.hu/
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piszter
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, H-1525 Budapest, P O Box 17, Hungary.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jakab
authors.affiliation: Hungarian Natural History Museum, H-1088, Budapest, Baross utca 13, Hungary.
authors.forename: Zs
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bálint
authors.affiliation: Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, 1525 Budapest, PO Box 49, Hungary. Electronic address: http://www.nanotechnology.hu/
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Vértesy
authors.affiliation: Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, 1525 Budapest, PO Box 49, Hungary. Electronic address: http://www.nanotechnology.hu/
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Biró
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D002080:Butterflies / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D013696:Temperature; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005740:Gases
keywords: Butterfly; Gas sensor; Nanoarchitecture; Photonic crystal; Wing scale