Patent ID: 7776611

Claim:
An optical sensor, comprising: a functionalized composite material that comprises a bulk silicate material, and that exhibits modulation of at least one optical property upon absorption of at least one analyte; and an optical component associated with the functionalized composite material that measures the modulation of the at least one optical property of the functionalized composite material; wherein modulation of the at least one optical property of the functionalized composite material is indicative of the presence of the analyte; where the bulk silicate material comprises: silsesquioxanes; or silsesquioxanes mixed together with or condensed at the same time with inorganic materials comprising silicates formed from a monomer selected from sodium ortho silicate Na 4 SiO 4 (or 2Na 2 OSiO 2 ), sodium meta silicate Na 2 SiO 3 (or NaO 2 OSiO 2 ), sodium di silicate Na 2 Si 2 O 5 (or Na 2 O 2 SiO 2 ), and sodium tetra silicate Na 2 Si 4 O 9 (or Na 2 O 4 SiO 2 ), optionally combined with metal oxides, aluminosilicates, or a combination thereof; where the silsesquioxanes are of general structure M-R′-M or M-R′—(Y) n —R′-M; where M is a polymerizable inorganic group such as a silica-based group such as SiX 3 ; X is OR″ or Cl or Br or I; R″ is an organic group such as C n H 2n+1 or an aromatic group such as phenyl; R′ is an organic spacer which may be an aliphatic group such as —(CH 2 ) n — optionally having substituents on the alkyl chain or an unsaturated hydrocarbon of any type including alkenes, alkynes, or arenes of general formula —C n H (2n-2m) —; m and n are independently integers from 1 to 20; and Y is a group containing one or more heteroatom selected from S, N, O, P.