Bioinspired Production of Noniridescent Structural Colors by Adhesive Melanin-like Particles

Structural color printing of colloidal photonic films with tunable structures or optical properties is of great importance owing to their practical applications. In this article, we present a general method for the fabrication of colloidal particle films with tailored packing geometries by self-assembly of adhesive melanin-like polydopamine (PDA)-coated particles. The adhesion of particles is controlled by varying the thickness of the PDA coating, making it possible for dip coating of colloidal crystals, partly ordered or amorphous colloidal arrays (ACAs) with a tunable degree of order. We further studied the structural color printing of adhesive particles by infiltration-assisted or standard inkjet printing methods. Compared with bare particles, PDA-coated particles not only allow for control over color brightness/angle dependence of the photonic films but also significantly enhance the color quality of ACAs, both of which are useful for display, anticounterfeiting, or sensing applications. Owing to the inherent strong adhesiveness of PDA to virtually all types of surfaces, this PDA-based methodology can be potentially extended to a diverse range of colloidal particles toward the development of photonic devices.