This DMREF project team has collaborated with Platypus Technologies LLC to develop wearable liquid crystalline sensors for monitoring human exposure to toxic gases (top part of figure). The need for wearable sensors to detect Cl2 and other toxic gases, which emerged from discussions with Platypus Technologies LLC, motivated our DMREF team to design new classes of chemically responsive liquid crystals to meet this societal need. The outcome of the effort has included new intellectual property that makes possible detection of a range of important gases based on atomic- and molecular-scale materials science and engineering. 

To disseminate the output of our project, we have created the Chemoresponsive Liquid Crystal Research Database website. We curate data on the website, allowing navigation between multiple generation of computational models (bottom part of figure). A built-in analyte search feature enables the efficient identification of the most promising liquid crystal designs for a desired analyte. New data are entered in the website, as they are published in archival journals and patented (when appropriate).

Related Software Innovation Tool: Chemoresponsive Liquid Crystal Research Database