Irreversible sensing of oxygen ingress

Absorption-based opto-chemical sensors for oxygen are presented that consist of leuco dyes (leuco indigo and leuco thioindigo) incorporated into two kinds of polymer matrices. An irreversible and visible color change (to red or blue) is caused by a chromogenic chemistry involving the oxidation of the (virtually colorless) leuco dyes by molecular oxygen. The moderately gas permeable copolymer poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) and a highly oxygen-permeable polyurethane hydrogel, respectively, are used in order to increase the effective dynamic range for visualizing and detecting oxygen. We describe the preparation and properties of four different types of such oxygen sensors that are obtained by dip-coating a gas impermeable foil made from poly(ethylene terephthalate) with a sensor layer composed of leuco dye and polymer.