Microfluidic Molding of Photonic Microparticles with Engraved Elastomeric Membranes

A microfluidic approach to prepare photonic microparticles by repeated molding of photocurable colloidal suspension is reported. An elastomeric membrane with negative relieves which vertically separates two microfluidic channels is integrated; bottom channel is used for suspension flow, whereas water‐filled top channel is used for pneumatic actuation of the membrane. Upon pressurization of the top channel, membrane is deformed to confine the suspension into its negative relieves, which is then polymerized by UV irradiation, making microparticles with mold shape. The microparticles are released from the mold by relieving the pneumatic pressure and flows through the bottom channel. This one cycle of molding, polymerization, and release can be repeatedly performed in microfluidic device of which pneumatic valves are actuated in a programmed manner. The microparticles exhibit structural colors when the suspension contains high concentration of silica nanoparticles; the nanoparticles form regular arrays and the microparticles reflect specific wavelength of light as a photonic crystals. The silica nanoparticles can be selectively removed to make pronounced structural colors. In addition, the microparticles can be further functionalized by embedding magnetic particles in the matrix of the microparticles, enabling the remote control of rotational motion of microparticles.     

Structural Coloration with Nonclose‐Packed Array of Bidisperse Colloidal Particles

Colloidal crystals and glasses have their own photonic effects. Colloidal crystals show high reflectivity at narrowband, whereas colloidal glasses show low reflectivity at broadband. To compromise the opposite optical properties, a simple means is suggested to control the colloidal arrangement between crystal and glass by employing two different sizes of silica particles with repulsive interparticle potential. Monodisperse silica particles with repulsive potential spontaneously form crystalline structure at volume fraction far below 0.74. When two different sizes of silica particles coexist, the arrangement of silica particles is significantly influenced by two parameters: size contrast and mixing ratio. When the size contrast is small, a long‐range order is partially conserved in the entire mixing ratio, resulting in a pronounced reflectance peak and brilliant structural color. When the size contrast is large, the long‐range order is rapidly reduced along with mixing ratio. Nevertheless, a short‐range order survives, which causes low reflectivity at a broad wavelength, developing faint structural colors. These findings offer an insight into controlling the colloidal arrangements and provide a simple way to tune the optical property of colloidal arrays for structural coloration.     

Bio‐Inspired Bright Structurally Colored Colloidal Amorphous Array Enhanced by Controlling Thickness and Black Background

Inspired by Steller's jay, which displays angle‐independent structural colors, angle‐independent structurally colored materials are created, which are composed of amorphous arrays of submicrometer‐sized fine spherical silica colloidal particles. When the colloidal amorphous arrays are thick, they do not appear colorful but almost white. However, the saturation of the structural color can be increased by (i) appropriately controlling the thickness of the array and (ii) placing the black background substrate. This is similar in the case of the blue feather of Steller's jay. Based on the knowledge gained through the biomimicry of structural colored materials, colloidal amorphous arrays on the surface of a black particle as the core particle are also prepared as colorful photonic pigments. Moreover, a structural color on–off system is successfully built by controlling the background brightness of the colloidal amorphous arrays.     

Optical properties caused by periodical array structure with colloidal particles and their applications

High quality opal films have been attracting much attention due to their novel properties and applications, such as smart materials with structural color, novel photonic/optical devices and three-dimensional photonic crystals. In this article, the author reported a colloidal crystal consisting of cubic closely packed (ccp) polystyrene particles and filled with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer. The array of ccp (111) planes diffracts light of selective wavelengths according to Bragg’s law. The PS-PDMS hybrid opal films exhibit dynamic tuning structural colors. The lattice distance of ccp (111) planes is variable by swelling PDMS elastomer with hydrophobic liquid or by applying mechanical deformation. The hybrid opal films have potential applications in wide fields, for example, in smart sensing materials, color imaging without pigments and strain mapping of plastic deformation.     

Structural Color Palettes of Core–Shell Photonic Ink Capsules Containing Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

Photonic microcapsules with onion‐like topology are microfluidically designed to have cholesteric liquid crystals with opposite handedness in their core and shell. The microcapsules exhibit structural colors caused by dual photonic bandgaps, resulting in a rich variety of color on the optical palette. Moreover, the microcapsules can switch the colors from either core or shell depending on the selection of light‐handedness.     

Large‐Scale Noniridescent Structural Color Printing Enabled by Infiltration‐Driven Nonequilibrium Colloidal Assembly

Structural colors originating from interaction of light with intricately arranged micro‐/nanostructures have stimulated considerable interest because of their inherent photostability and energy efficiency. In particular, noniridescent structural color with wide viewing angle has been receiving increasing attention recently. However, no method is yet available for rapid and large‐scale fabrication of full‐spectrum structural color patterns with wide viewing angles. Here, infiltration‐driven nonequilibrium assembly of colloidal particles on liquid‐permeable and particle‐excluding substrates is demonstrated to direct the particles to form amorphous colloidal arrays (ACAs) within milliseconds. The infiltration‐assisted (IFAST) colloidal assembly opens new possibilities for rapid manufacture of noniridescent structural colors of ACAs and straightforward structural color mixing. Full‐spectrum noniridescent structural colors are successfully produced by mixing primary structural colors of red, blue, and yellow using a commercial office inkjet printer. Rapid fabrication of large‐scale structural color patterns with sophisticated color combination/layout by IFAST printing is realized. The IFAST technology is versatile for developing structural color patterns with wide viewing angles, as colloidal particles, inks, and substrates are flexibly designable for diverse applications.     

Pressure‐Responsive Hierarchical Chiral Photonic Aerogels

Pressure‐responsive chiral photonic aerogels are fabricated by combining liquid crystal self‐assembly and ice‐templating processes. The aerogels have a hierarchical structure in which the primary 2D chiral nematic structured walls of cellulose nanocrystals form ribbons that support a secondary 3D cellular network. Owing to the flexibility of the aerogels in solvent, the 3D structure of the aerogel can easily be transformed to a 2D structure by pressure‐induced rearrangement. The aerogels vary from white in color, which arises from light scattering, to a reflective photonic crystal displaying bright iridescent colors that depend on the immersed solvent. A solvent‐sensitive ink that shows quick color response to different solvents is designed using the pressure‐responsive photonic aerogel. This material demonstrates a new response mechanism for the design of smart and mechanoresponsive photonic materials.     

机械力致变色光子晶体材料研究进展

目的 总结光子晶体材料在机械力致变色方面的研究现状,基于机械力致变色光子晶体的特点进行展望,为进一步研究和应用提供参考.方法 基于机械力的施加方式,从拉伸变色和压缩变色两个方面系统介绍了机械力致变色光子晶体的制备方法、光学性能以及机械性能,并分析比较了这两种光子晶体材料的应用现状和前景.结论 机械力致变色光子晶体在结构上有多种形式,包括嵌入胶体阵列的弹性体光子晶体、胶体交联光子晶体、层状光子晶体、链状光子晶体等,近些年这些光子晶体已经可以达到明亮的结构色和应变能力.机械力致变色光子晶体因其形式的多样性和良好的光学、机械性能,使其在应力检测、人体运动状态监测、防伪、显示等方面得以应用,具有很大的实际应用潜力.     

Bioinspired Color Materials Combining Structural,Dye, and Background Colors

Human beings have developed many dyes and pigments and use them for printed and display materials to share information. Today's information society is not possible without these color materials. Some living organisms utilize body color for information exchange and protection by skilfully combining dye, structural, and background colors to realize a body color change based on circumstances. In this study, inspired by the extraordinary body color changes of living things, a composite color material combining photochromic dyes, a black substance, a spherical colloidal crystal exhibiting a structural color, and a background color is prepared. In addition to combining a dye color and a structural color that changes upon light irradiation, the contribution of the different effects of the background color on each coloring property allows the construction of a color material that can reversibly change into various colors under different conditions.     

Inkjet Printing of Patterned,Multispectral, and Biocompatible Photonic Crystals

Patterning of photonic crystals to generate rationally designed color‐responsive materials has drawn considerable interest because of promising applications in optical storage, encryption, display, and sensing. Here, an inkjet‐printing based strategy is presented for noncontact, rapid, and direct approaches to generate arbitrarily patterned photonic crystals. The strategy is based on the use of water‐soluble biopolymer‐based opal structures that can be reformed with high resolution through precise deposition of fluids on the photonic crystal lattice. The resulting digitally designed photonic lattice formats simultaneously exploit structural color and material transience opening avenues for information encoding and combining functions of optics, biomaterials, and environmental interfaces in a single device.     

Metallosupramolecular Photonic Elastomers with Self‐Healing Capability and Angle‐Independent Color

Photonic elastomers that can change colors like a chameleon have shown great promise in various applications. However, it still remains a challenge to produce artificial photonic elastomers with desired optical and mechanical properties. Here, the generation of metallosupramolecular polymer‐based photonic elastomers with tunable mechanical strength, angle‐independent structural color, and self‐healing capability is reported. The photonic elastomers are prepared by incorporating isotropically arranged monodispersed SiO₂ nanoparticles within a supramolecular elastomeric matrix based on metal coordination interaction between amino‐terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) and cerium trichloride. The photonic elastomers exhibit angle‐independent structural colors, while Young's modulus and elongation at break of the as‐formed photonic elastomers reach 0.24 MPa and 150%, respectively. The superior elasticity of photonic elastomers enables their chameleon‐skin‐like mechanochromic capability. Moreover, the photonic elastomers are capable of healing scratches or cuts to ensure sustainable optical and mechanical properties, which is crucial to their applications in wearable devices, optical coating, and visualized force sensing.     

Tunable Photonic Microspheres of Comb‐Like Supramolecules

Photonic crystals (PCs) are ideal candidates for reflective color pigments with high color purity and brightness due to tunable optical stop band. Herein, the generation of PC microspheres through 3D confined supramolecular assembly of block copolymers (polystyrene‐block‐poly(2‐vinylpyridine), PS‐b‐P2VP) and small molecules (3‐n‐pentadecylphenol, PDP) in emulsion droplets is demonstrated. The intrinsic structural colors of the PC microspheres are effectively regulated by tuning hydrogen‐bonding interaction between P2VP blocks and PDP, where reflected color can be readily tuned across the whole visible spectrum range. Also, the effects of both PDP and homopolymer (hPS) on periodic structure and optical properties of the microspheres are investigated. Moreover, the spectral results of finite element method (FEM) simulation agree well with the variation of structural colors by tuning the periodicity in PC microspheres. The supramolecular microspheres with tunable intrinsic structural color can be potentially useful in the various practical applications including display, anti‐counterfeit printing and painting.     

Facile Synthesis of Monodispersed Polysulfide Spheres for Building Structural Colors with High Color Visibility and Broad Viewing Angle

The synthesis and assembly of monodispersed colloidal spheres are currently the subject of extensive investigation to fabricate artificial structural color materials. However, artificial structural colors from general colloidal crystals still suffer from the low color visibility and strong viewing angle dependence which seriously hinder their practical application in paints, colorimetric sensors, and color displays. Herein, monodispersed polysulfide (PSF) spheres with intrinsic high refractive index (as high as 1.858) and light‐absorbing characteristics are designed, synthesized through a facile polycondensation and crosslinking process between sodium disulfide and 1,2,3‐trichloropropane. Owing to their high monodispersity, sufficient surface charge, and good dispersion stability, the PSF spheres can be assembled into large‐scale and high‐quality 3D photonic crystals. More importantly, high structural color visibility and broad viewing angle are easily achieved because the unique features of PSF can remarkably enhance the relative reflectivity and eliminate the disturbance of scattering and background light. The results of this study provide a simple and efficient strategy to create structural colors with high color visibility, which is very important for their practical application.     

氧化锌/二氧化硅复合膜的结构色研究

采用静电自组装技术,以氧化锌（ZnO）和二氧化硅（SiO2）溶胶颗粒为前驱体,通过控制双组分膜层的不同厚度,制备出结构色鲜艳的ZnO/SiO2复合膜,并利用分光测色仪、多角度分光光度仪及扫描电子显微镜等研究复合膜的颜色、微观结构和形态特征。研究结果发现,ZnO/SiO2复合膜的亮度和色度均较单一组分薄膜的高,复合薄膜的颜色仍随厚度和观察角度的变化而变化。通过对薄膜的微观结构分析,结合其厚度随周期数的变化规律,发现复合薄膜的厚度随着自组装循环次数的增加而增加,薄膜中的纳米粒子并没有形成明显的高低折射率交替分布的双层结构,可能形成的是高折射率层（H层）、有效折射率层（eff层）和低折射率层（L层）的多层微观结构。这种特殊的多层结构与光作用发生干涉,形成了鲜亮度和饱和度更高的结构色。     

Bioinspired Photonic Pigments from Colloidal Self‐Assembly

The natural world is a colorful environment. Stunning displays of coloration have evolved throughout nature to optimize camouflage, warning, and communication. The resulting flamboyant visual effects and remarkable dynamic properties, often caused by an intricate structural design at the nano‐ and microscale, continue to inspire scientists to unravel the underlying physics and to recreate the observed effects. Here, the methodologies to create bioinspired photonic pigments using colloidal self‐assembly approaches are considered. The physics governing the interaction of light with structural features and natural examples of structural coloration are briefly introduced. It is then outlined how the self‐assembly of colloidal particles, acting as wavelength‐scale building blocks, can be particularly useful to replicate coloration from nature. Different coloration effects that result from the defined structure of the self‐assembled colloids are introduced and it is highlighted how these optical properties can be translated into photonic pigments by modifications of the assembly processes. The importance of absorbing elements, as well as the role of surface chemistry and wettability to control structural coloration is discussed. Finally, approaches to integrate dynamic control of coloration into such self‐assembled photonic pigments are outlined.     

Angular-Independent Photonic Pigments via the Controlled Micellization of Amphiphilic Bottlebrush Block Copolymers

Photonic materials with angular-independent structural color are highly desirable because they offer the broad viewing angles required for application as colorants in paints, cosmetics, textiles, or displays. However, they are challenging to fabricate as they require isotropic nanoscale architectures with only short-range correlation. Here, porous microparticles with such a structure are produced in a single, scalable step from an amphiphilic bottlebrush block copolymer. This is achieved by exploiting a novel “controlled micellization” self-assembly mechanism within an emulsified toluene-in-water droplet. By restricting water permeation through the droplet interface, the size of the pores can be precisely addressed, resulting in structurally colored pigments. Furthermore, the reflected color can be tuned to reflect across the full visible spectrum using only a single polymer (M_n = 290 kDa) by altering the initial emulsification conditions. Such “photonic pigments” have several key advantages over their crystalline analogues, as they provide isotropic structural coloration that suppresses iridescence and improves color purity without the need for either refractive index matching or the inclusion of a broadband absorber.     

强散射作用产生的艳丽方向性结构色

通过光与微纳结构相互作用产生颜色的结构生色材料一直是显示、防伪和刺激响应材料领域研究的热点.与光子晶体生色的镜面反射特性相比,基于散射的结构生色具有更宽的可视角,因此受到越来越多的关注.无序结构产生的宽散射光谱往往导致其结构色纯度和亮度降低,而有序结构在可见光区一般具有强的反射和衍射作用,因此很少有研究者关注有序结构的...     

Mechanochromic Photonic Gels

Polymer gels are remarkable materials with physical structures that can adapt significantly and quite rapidly with changes in the local environment, such as temperature, light intensity, electrochemistry, and mechanical force. An interesting phenomenon observed in certain polymer gel systems is mechanochromism – a change in color due to a mechanical deformation. Mechanochromic photonic gels are periodically structured gels engineered with a photonic stopband that can be tuned by mechanical forces to reflect specific colors. These materials have potential as mechanochromic sensors because both the mechanical and optical properties are highly tailorable via incorporation of diluents, solvents, nanoparticles, or polymers, or the application of stimuli such as temperature, pH, or electric or strain fields. Recent advances in photonic gels that display strain‐dependent optical properties are discussed. In particular, this discussion focuses primarily on polymer‐based photonic gels that are directly or indirectly fabricated via self‐assembly, as these materials are promising soft material platforms for scalable mechanochromic sensors.     

Tunable Design of Structural Colors Produced by Pseudo‐1D Photonic Crystals of Graphene Oxide

It is broadly observed that graphene oxide (GO) films appear transparent with a thickness of about several nanometers, whereas they appear dark brown or almost black with thickness of more than 1 μm. The basic color mechanism of GO film on a sub‐micrometer scale, however, is not well understood. This study reports on GO pseudo‐1D photonic crystals (p1D‐PhCs) exhibiting tunable structural colors in the visible wavelength range owing to its 1D Bragg nanostructures. Striking structural colors of GO p1D‐PhCs could be tuned by simply changing either the volume or concentration of the aqueous GO dispersion during vacuum filtration. Moreover, the quantitative relationship between thickness and reflection wavelength of GO p1D‐PhCs has been revealed, thereby providing a theoretical basis to rationally design structural colors of GO p1D‐PhCs. The spectral response of GO p1D‐PhCs to humidity is also obtained clearly showing the wavelength shift of GO p1D‐PhCs at differently relative humidity values and thus encouraging the integration of structural color printing and the humidity‐responsive property of GO p1D‐PhCs to develop a visible and fast‐responsive anti‐counterfeiting label. The results pave the way for a variety of potential applications of GO in optics, structural color printing, sensing, and anti‐counterfeiting.     

Colorimetric Recording of Thermal Conditions on Polymeric Inverse Opals

Recording thermal conditions, i.e., temperature and time, is of great importance for various applications. Although thermometers can measure temperature and record its temporal change with electronic devices, they are nondisposable and not patch‐type, restricting their uses. Here, photonic films are designed that record thermal condition through irreversible structural deformation and intuitively report it with color patterns. The photonic films are inverse opals made of negative photoresist on a solid support, where the cross‐linking density of the photoresist is regioselectively adjusted. The photonic films show a gradual blueshift of structural color upon heating due to anisotropic compression of the inverse opal, of which the rate depends on temperature and cross‐linking density. For single cross‐linking density, thermal input is quantified from the color change in the form of coupled temperature and time. With multiple cross‐linking densities in a single film, the multicolor pattern is developed, from which the temperature and time are decoupled and separately estimated for isothermal condition.