Poly(ionic liquid)s respond like taste buds in new saccharide detection system

An image showing sugar cubes

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System that exploits non-covalent interactions between ionic liquid moieties and carbohydrates could have multiple real-world applications

A team in China has developed a new sensing platform for carbohydrate analysis. Using polymerised ionic liquids doped with luminogens they made photonic spheres that can distinguish between 32 different saccharides.