Replacing toxic dyes with photonic crystals for printing applications: simulation study

Photonic crystals are proposed for colored printing due to the fantastic geometrical and optical features of photonic crystal structures. This study proposes multilayers to replace toxic dyes with safe, durable printers in the range of visible light. The color of each point on the printed model can be changed by changing the thickness of the layers. Further, the suggested models have demonstrated the practical ability of PhC to manipulate the structural color by tuning the thickness of layers. These properties make it a good choice for 3D printing. Hence, we can substitute dangerous dyes with periodic optical structures in 3D printers to cover 3D shapes.