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Engineering Photonic Pigments From Titania-Block Copolymer Composites
Niklas Rocca Schwarz1,2, Jorge Larios1,2, Antoine Scalabre2,3
1Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Macromolecular Rapid Communications
|July 14, 2026
Summary
Researchers developed new structural color pigments using block copolymers and titanium dioxide nanoparticles. These photonic pigments exhibit enhanced brightness and saturation due to improved order and refractive index contrast, offering non-fading colors.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Optics
Background:
- Structural color pigments offer non-fading colors but often suffer from low brightness and saturation due to disorder and low refractive index contrast.
- Block copolymer self-assembly is a promising route for creating photonic materials, but achieving high performance requires precise control over structure and composition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To engineer non-iridescent photonic pigments with enhanced brightness and saturation.
- To investigate the effect of incorporating ligand-functionalized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles into block copolymer microspheres.
- To establish design rules for high-performance structural pigments by controlling ordering, scattering, and refractive index contrast.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of onion-like polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) microspheres using emulsion-confined self-assembly.
- Incorporation of ligand-functionalized TiO2 nanoparticles into the poly(2-vinylpyridine) domains.
- Thermally assisted solvent evaporation to improve lamellar order.
- Characterization using ultra-small angle X-ray scattering and electron microscopy.
- Optical modeling with transfer-matrix method and Ewald-sphere analysis.
Main Results:
- Achieved high incorporation efficiency of TiO2 nanoparticles, leading to enhanced refractive index contrast.
- Thermally assisted solvent evaporation improved long-range lamellar order, suppressing disorder and enabling strong Bragg reflections.
- Increased nanoparticle content reduced lamellar periodicity and caused a blue-shift in the Bragg peak.
- Fabricated pigments with enhanced saturation and luminance compared to nanoparticle-free references.
- Developed practical design rules linking ordering, scattering, and refractive index contrast to pigment performance.
Conclusions:
- Ligand-functionalized TiO2 nanoparticles can be effectively incorporated into block copolymer microspheres to create high-performance structural color pigments.
- Controlling nanoparticle loading and lamellar ordering is crucial for tuning optical properties like saturation and luminance.
- The developed design principles enable the creation of advanced photonic pigments with superior color characteristics.
