UV-responsive polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers prepared by electrospinning

Abstract

We report UV-responsive polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers for potential application for recording and erasing quick response (QR) codes. We incorporate 1'-3'-dihydro-8-methoxy-1',3',3'-trimethyl-6-nitro spiro [2H-1-benzopyran-2,2'-(2H)-indole] (indole) and,3-dihydro-1,3,3-trimethylspiro [2H-indole-2,3'-[3H] phenanthr [9,10-b] (1,4) oxazine] (oxazine) into PVA polymer matrix via electrospinning technique. The resultant nanofibers were measured for recording-erasing, photo-coloration and thermal reversibility. The rate of photo-coloration of PVA-indole nanofibers was five times higher than the PVA-oxazine nanofibers, whereas the thermal reversibility found to be more than twice as fast as PVA-oxazine nanofibers. Results showed that the resultant nanofibers have very good capability of recording QR codes multiple times. The FUR spectroscopy and SEM were employed to characterize the electrospun nanofibers. The UV-responsive PVA nanofibers have great potentials as a light-driven nanomaterials incorporated within sensors, sensitive displays and in optical devices such as erasable and rewritable optical storage.