Hu, Yuandu; Jason Tresback and Juan Perez-Mercader

Ruthenium-functionalized microgels were prepared with the combination of microfluidics-based droplet template approach and the direct crosslinking of two types of functionalized polymers within the droplet "microreactor". The microgels displayed a variety of properties, including the catalytic capability for Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, white light induced structural memory behavior and monochromatic lights triggered photolysis and structural degradation behaviors. The photo degradation mechanism is also proposed and further verified by multiple characterization methods.