Zhengdong Cheng, Texas A&M University, Chemical Engineering Department, College Station, TX 77843, Jingyi Shen, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 409 Jack E Brown Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3122, Srinivasa Pullela, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3122, and Manuel Marquez, Arizona State University; National Institute of Standards and Technology; Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Uniform PNIPAM gel particles with covalently bound tris(bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) were synthesized via coordination chemistry between a ruthenium complex and monodispersed poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgel particles bearing bipyridine ligand. UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and confocal microscopy were employed for the characterization of the gel particles. Loading of the tris(bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) complexes and the uniformity of the particle size were confirmed. We have studied the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction in these gel particles. Chaotic oscillating behavior has been observed.