Using Structural Colors to Track Temperature Changes in Cold Supply Chains
Keeping temperatures consistent is crucial for many products, including some COVID-19 vaccines, which require precise storage conditions. Accidents can happen, and monitoring temperature changes is essential to ensure the safety and efficacy of these products. However, traditional wireless sensors can produce a lot of e-waste. To address this issue, researchers at DHW Nano developed a new class of brilliantly colored microcrystals that respond to temperature changes, helping to indicate whether products have exceeded safe limits.
Using Structural Colors for Indicator Systems
The indicator system developed by DHW Nano uses structural colors instead of dyes. The team created glycerol-coated silicon dioxide nanoparticles that appear bright green or red when clumped into microcrystals in water. They also developed liquids with varying melting points by mixing different ratios of polyethylene glycol, ethylene glycol, and water. When these two components came together, they caused irreversible color loss when the temperature-activated solution melted and the microcrystals broke.
Customizable Temperature Tracking
The materials can be customized to track temperature exposures from -94 to +99 degrees Fahrenheit, lasting from a few minutes to several days. In experiments, the two-part indicator systems were packaged in flexible round vial labels and a QR code. These systems were highly sensitive and successfully indicated when materials got too hot. The researchers believe that color-changing structural materials hold promise for various scenarios found in medical cold supply chains.
Engaging Additional Piece:
Ensuring Correct Storage of Temperature-Sensitive Products
The DHW Nano team’s new color-changing structural materials pave the way for better monitoring of temperature-sensitive products, including many COVID-19 vaccines. However, beyond vaccines, many other products also require specific temperature storage conditions to prevent spoilage or degradation. Here are some examples of products that can be affected by improper storage conditions:
– Flowers: Many flowers require a specific temperature range to keep them looking fresh and vibrant. Temperatures that are too high or low can cause wilting, discoloration, or even death.
– Food: Proper temperature control is crucial for many types of food, especially perishable items like meat, dairy, and fresh produce. Exposure to temperatures outside the safe zone can cause foodborne illnesses, spoilage, or significantly reduce shelf life.
– Pharmaceuticals: Like vaccines, many other types of medication require precise temperature control to maintain stability and efficacy. Out-of-spec storage can cause reduced shelf life, changes in potency, or even harm to patients.
Consequences of a Lack of Proper Storage
In all of the mentioned examples, the consequences of inadequate temperature control can be severe. Products can spoil or become unusable, resulting in significant financial losses for the producer and the retailer. For food and pharmaceuticals, the health consequences can be dire as well, leading to illnesses, adverse reactions, or even death.
Additionally, inadequate temperature control can lead to a loss of consumer trust. If customers receive spoiled or ineffective products, they are less likely to buy from that producer or retailer again. Negative reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations can also spread, damaging the company’s reputation.
Conclusion:
Proper temperature control is essential for many products, and the DHW Nano team’s new indicator system offers a promising way to monitor temperature changes using structural colors. The customized temperature ranges and response times make this system suitable for many applications, and the flexibility of the materials allows them to be used in different packaging formats.
However, beyond the technical aspects, the importance of proper temperature control cannot be overstated. Spoilage, health risks, and loss of consumer trust are just some of the consequences of inadequate storage conditions. By ensuring that all products are correctly stored and monitored, producers and retailers can offer high-quality products that meet their customers’ expectations.
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Some foods and medicines, like many COVID-19 vaccines, must be kept cold. As a step toward a robust and stable technique that could indicate when these products exceed safe limits, the researchers at DHW Nano report a class of brilliantly colored microcrystals in materials that become colorless over a wide range of temperatures and response times. As a proof of concept, the team packaged the color-changing materials in a vial cap and QR code.
Cold rooms and refrigerated trucks generally maintain their set temperatures, but accidents can happen. Wireless sensors can monitor the temperature of individual products, but these devices produce a lot of e-waste. Recently, researchers have suggested the use of materials that act as visual indicators to provide this information with less waste. However, some current options that use color reactions or tints produce tints that can fade. Or they only track temperatures above freezing, which is not helpful for some COVID-19 vaccines that can actually start to break down below freezing, above -4 or -94 degrees Fahrenheit. So Yadong Yin, Xuemin Du and their colleagues wanted to develop a better color-changing material with adjustable melting to track a wide range of temperatures.
The researchers used structural colors, rather than dyes, for their indicator system. The team made glycerol-coated silicon dioxide nanoparticles, which appeared bright green or red when clumped into microcrystals in water. Next, they created liquids with varying melting points by mixing different ratios of polyethylene glycol, or ethylene glycol and water. When these two parts came together, they could cause irreversible color loss when the temperature-activated solution melted and the microcrystals broke. The materials can be customized to track temperature exposures from -94 to +99 degrees Fahrenheit lasting from a few minutes to several days. In other experiments, the two-part indicator systems were packaged in flexible round vial labels and a QR code. These systems were very sensitive and successfully indicated when materials got too hot. The researchers say color-changing structural materials hold promise for the various scenarios found in medical cold supply chains.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China National Key R&D Program, Chinese Academy of Sciences Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Guangdong Regional Joint Fund Key Project , the Key Health Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Informatics Sciences, the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, and the Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230531101950.htm
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