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

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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.