Photo-Rheological Fluid-Based Colorimetric Ultraviolet Light Intensity Sensor

Abstract

This study presents an introduction to a new type of ultraviolet (UV) light intensity sensor using photo-rheological (PR) fluids whose properties, such as color, can be changed by UV light. When the PR fluids were irradiated by UV light, colorimetric transitions were observed. Effectively, this means that their color changed gradually from yellow to red. The degree of the color change depended on the UV light intensity and was characterized by the hue value of the images acquired with a compact image sensor. We demonstrated that UV light-responsive capabilities can be readily imparted to PR fluids, and that the colorimetric responses to different UV light intensities can be used to measure the UV light intensities.