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Summary: Colloidal crystal films with a special FCC structure and tough mechanical strength were simply fabricated using latex spheres with a hard PS core and an elastometric PMMA/PAA shell. The monodispersed latex spheres were prepared in one step without any further purification procedure. Distinguished from conventional colloidal crystal films by a bicontinuous FCC structure, the film was fully dense with separate air space, which can greatly improve the mechanical strength of the film. Furthermore, films with brilliant and monochromatic colors covering the entire visible region were fabricated by controlling the diameters of the assembled latex spheres (see Figure). Such a simple method for fabricating PBG tunable colloidal crystal films with tough mechanical strength would have wide applications in many fields, such as optical devices and decorative materials. magnified image

Cover: The images show the essential features of colloidal crystal films fabricated by assembling latex spheres with rigid PS core and flexible PMMA/PAA shell: fully-dense FCC morphology observed from [111], [110] or [100] plane, tough mechanical strength, and brilliant colors covering the entire visible region. Further details can be found in the Full Paper