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Self-growing photonic composites with programmable colors and mechanical properties
Juan Xue1,2, Xuewu Yin1, Lulu Xue3
1Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 5, Section 2, North Jianshe Road, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610057, P. R. China.
Nature Communications
|December 19, 2022
Summary
Researchers developed a novel self-growing photonic composite inspired by peacock feathers. This innovative material allows tunable structural color and offers enhanced flexibility and toughness for diverse applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Biomimicry
Background:
- Organisms utilize structural color from micro-/nano-structures for optical displays, unlike pigmentation.
- Biological structural colors are derived from sustainable materials like chitin and keratin.
- Current synthetic structural color materials are often brittle, inert, and energy-intensive to produce.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a self-growing photonic composite system for tunable structural color.
- To mimic the keratin-based photonic structures found in peacock feathers.
- To overcome limitations of current synthetic structural color materials.
Main Methods:
- A silica nanosphere-polymer composite system was employed.
- Selective growth of the polymer matrix using polymerizable compounds as feeding materials.
- Modulation of photonic bandgaps by controlling polymer matrix growth.
Main Results:
- The self-growing system allows for easy tuning of photonic bandgaps and coloration.
- Nanostructural order is maintained during the modulation of photonic bandgaps.
- The resulting material exhibits flexibility, toughness, self-healing, and reshaping capabilities.
Conclusions:
- The developed self-growing method is simple, inexpensive, versatile, and scalable.
- This approach enables on-demand variation of colors and patterns in structural materials.
- The material shows significant potential for applications requiring advanced structural color properties.
