Polymer-based colour tunable materials for pH and CI/Br sensing in pool and spa water

游泳池和水疗中心的水化学是非常重要的监测和控制，以保持游泳者和沐浴者的安全和健康。最重要的是水的pH值和消毒剂浓度的形式氯和溴。从历史上看，游泳池和水疗中心的水化学一直是手动测试和调节的，而最近出现了能够自动监测和调节水质的新型水质监测系统。虽然这是朝着正确方向迈出的一步，但这些系统中的传感器价格昂贵，并且容易发生频繁故障。该提案描述了改进的pH、Cl-和Br-传感器的制造，其将被设计成比现有技术更可靠且更便宜。传感器将由基于聚合物的球形颗粒制造，当它们浸入改变pH或Cl-/Br-浓度的溶液中时，这些颗粒表现出尺寸变化。这些颗粒将夹在两层薄的Au（金）层之间，产生一种具有可见颜色的设备，可以通过光谱进行监测。颗粒尺寸的变化将对应于它们用于制造的装置的可见颜色的变化。因此，可以通过监测传感器设备的颜色（根据光谱特性）来确定游泳池和温泉水中Cl-和Br-的pH值和浓度。

Pool and spa water chemistry is very important to monitor and control in order to keep swimmers and bathers safe and healthy. Most important is the water's pH and sanitizer concentration in the form of Cl- and Br-. Historically, pool and spa water chemistry has been tested and adjusted manually, while newer water quality monitoring systems have recently emerged that are capable of monitoring and adjusting water quality automatically. While this is a step in the right direction, the sensors in these systems are expensive, and are prone to frequent failures. This proposal describes the fabrication of improved pH, Cl- and Br- sensors, which will be engineered to be more reliable, and less expensive than the current state of the art. The sensors will be fabricated from polymer-based spherical particles that exhibit size changes when the solution they are immersed in changes pH or Cl-/Br- concentration. The particles will be sandwiched between two thin Au (gold) layers, yielding a device with visual colour, which can be monitored spectrally. The particle size changes will correspond to a change in the visible colour of the device they were used to fabricate. Therefore, the pH and concentration of Cl- and Br- in pool and spa water can be determined by monitoring the colour (in terms of spectral properties) of the sensor device.