Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Vol.17, No.2, 87-90, 1996
New optical properties of polyelectrolyte hydrogels
A new optically active medium for lasers - a polyelectrolyte hydrogen swollen in a mixture of water+alcohol+dye - is presented. An anomalous dependence of the absorbance on the composition of the mixture is observed. It shows a maximum which corresponds to the composition when the hydrogel starts to swell as a hydrophilic network.