Nonintrusively Adjusting Structural Colors of Sealed Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystals: Immediate Transformation between Transparency and Intense Iridescence and Their Applications

Tunable temperature-responsive photonic ionogels with dual signals output

Photonic ionogels with dual electrical and optical output have been intensively studied. However, tunable temperature-responsive photonic ionogel assembled by thermosensitive nanogels has not been studied yet. Herein, an innovative approach to fabricate photonic ionogels has been developed for smart wearable devices with tunable temperature sensitivity and structural color. Firstly, poly(isopropylacrylamide-r-phenylmaleanilic acid) P(NIPAm-r-NPMA) nanogels self-assemble into photonic crystals in 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA), water, and the ionic liquid of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate. And then robust photonic ionogels are developed through a polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate crosslinked by poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA). The incorporation of the ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate, enhances the mechanical strength of photonic ionogels and tunes the temperature-sensitivity of the ionogels, making them adaptable to various environmental conditions. The findings demonstrate that these ionogels can serve dual functions in smart wearable devices, combining electrical and optical signal outputs due to the conductivity of the ionic liquid and structural color from the nanogel assembly. The resultant photonic ionogels exhibit exceptional substrate adhesion, mechanical stability, and fast resilience. More significantly, the nanogels within these ionogels serve as the building blocks of photonic crystals (PCs) endow with angle-independent coloration and enhance stretchability beyond 200 %, while the stretchability of the ionogles without the nanogels is only about 100 %. Our photonic ionogels with tunable temperature-sensitivity and dual outputs will open an avenue to the development of the innovative smart wearable devices.

Lattice Transformation-Induced Retroreflective Structural Colors

Retroreflective structural colors can usually be achieved based on interference combined with a total internal reflection mechanism or diffraction of a monolayer hexagonal two-dimensional (2D) colloidal array. Here, a novel retroreflective structural color was generated based on a hexagonal-parallelogram lattice transformation by stretching 3D photonic crystals with nonclosely packed long-range order. Compared to previous retroreflective colors, this new retroreflective color exhibits two unique off/on color switches: (1) a strain-dependent off/on color switch along the stretching direction and (2) a sample horizontal rotation angle-dependent off/on color switch under the fixed strain. These strain-responsive retroreflective colors are ideal candidates for visually sensing kinesio tapes' strain in practical applications and anticounterfeiting. This work reveals a new structural color regulation mechanism and will advance potential applications in anticounterfeiting, sensing, displays, etc.

An angle-compensating colorimetric strain sensor with wide working range and its fabrication method

The visual response is one of the most intuitive principles of sensors. Therefore, emission and change of the colors are widely studied for development of chemical, thermal and mechanical sensors. And it is still a challenging issue to fabricate them with a simple working mechanism, high sensitivity, good reliability, and a cost-effective fabrication process. In this study, we propose a mechanical strain sensor, which has 2D photonic crystal structures in nanoscale on stretchable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. Due to the periodic nanostructures, the surface of the sensor produces structural colors. And when it is stretched, the periodicity of the nanostructures changes, which results in the shift of the colors. Multiple nanostructures with different periodicities are integrated on the sensor in order to extend the working range up to 150% with high sensitivity. In addition, reusable and robust molds, which are fabricated by self-assembly of nanoparticles, are used for multiple replications of sensor substrates. Thus, the fabrication process of this study is believed to be potential for possible industrial manufacturing. This study is expected to contribute to strain sensors in the future for the applications of health care, infrastructure monitoring, soft robotics, and wearable devices.

Biomimetic Janus photonic soft actuator with structural color self-reporting

Soft actuators with variable signal/color play an important role in the fields of targeted locomotion, artificial phototropism, drug screening, cargo transportation, and interactive sensing. The ability to achieve rapid response, large curvature, wide bending angle, and full-color display continues to be an unresolved challenge for artificial actuating materials. Inspired by the angle-dependent structural color of broad-tailed hummingbird and the Janus wettability of the lotus leaf, a Janus photonic soft actuator (JPSA) was fabricated by integrating an underwater super-oleophilic copper micro-nano array and oil-phobic inverse opal through a Laplace channel. The JPSA exhibits unidirectional permeability to underwater oil droplets. Attractively, with the combination of a swellable super-oleophilic surface and photonic crystals, JPSAs were endowed with oil-controlled reversible bending behavior with self-reporting angle-dependent color indication. We described for the first time the directional actuating mechanism induced by underwater oil unidirectional penetration and revealed the corresponding actuating kinetics and the inner-stress distribution/transfer by using structural color. As an extension of such theory, a rapid responsive JPSA with a wide bending angle and full-color self-reporting is further fabricated. This work provides an efficient strategy for oil directional transportation and separation in aqueous media and inspires the fabrication of a soft actuator/sensor with structural color self-reporting.

Robust Large-Sized Photochromic Photonic Crystal Film for Smart Decoration and Anti-Counterfeiting

Photochromic materials are widely investigated due to their vivid color transformation for many real applications. In this work, a new kind of multiangle photochromic photonic crystal (PC) material with high robustness and long durability for smart phone decoration and anticounterfeiting features is fabricated. After thermal mixing of spiropyran powder and monodisperse core-interlayer-shell (CIS) particles, a large-area and high-quality photochromic PC film has been prepared by the self-designed bending-induced ordering technique (BIOT). The spiropyran powder can be well dispersed in the order-structured PC system, so the perfect synergistic combination of photochromism and angle-dependent structure colors can be achieved. The color-switching test for the as-prepared photochromic PC film proved its excellent reversibility and stability. Because of the excellent flexibility of the photo-cross-linked PC films, they can be designed and cut into various shapes with high robustness and long durability. Interestingly, a temperature-controlled photochromic effect was found in this photochromic PC system. Therefore, the as-prepared photochromic PC films can play a significant role in the fields of smart decoration and anticounterfeiting by their unique color switching effects under different stimuli. More importantly, our work verified the feasibility of this route to prepare a series of large-sized advanced smart PC devices by adding versatile functional materials.

Silica-templated photonic crystal sensors for specific detection of Cu2+

A novel Cu-IOPC sensor was developed by combining the SiO2-based inverse opals with imidazolyl. Such mechanism is based on the specific binding of imidazole with copper ions, then the copper ions can be detected with high accuracy and efficiency.