Facile fabrication of a three-dimensional colloidal crystal film with large-area and robust mechanical properties

Abstract

Three-dimensional colloidal crystal films with large-area and robust mechanical properties can be successfully fabricated via the roomtemperature film-formation of ''soft'' polymer spheres latex with the aid of nanosilica particles.

Self-assembly of colloidal spheres and application as solvent responding polymer film

“…Wang et al [32] fabricated a humidity sensor film by infiltrating acrylamide (AAm) solution into a P(St-MMA-AA) PC template and subsequently photo-polymerizing. Wu et al [33] fabricated a reversible solvatochrom-responsive polymer film just by casting the dispersions of soft polymer onto the glass substrate and drying at room temperature based on film formations of soft polymer spheres [34][35][36][37][38][39]. Though the above works were truly simple, it was mainly carried on glass substrates.…”

Facile fabrication of mechanochromic-responsive colloidal crystal films

“…For elastic opal films based on core-shell particles, further UV treating is necessary to photo crosslinking the beads with the matrix [28]. In previous report, [32] we developed a novel and simple method to fabricate crystal films with large-area and robust mechanical properties based on the room-temperature film-formation of ''soft" colloidal polymer spheres by the aid of nanosilica particles. In this study, we further design and prepare elastic colloidal crystal films by varying the polymer composition, to fabricate mechanochromic response of the crystal films based on our previous method.…”

Rapid fabrication of organic/organic photonic bandgap films with tuneable mechanical properties using blended polymer spheres

“…Thus, since 2009, Wu and co‐workers published a series of literature describing an attractive, novel, and simple approach for constructing tough PBG films. This approach is different from the use of normal colloid PBG films using hard spheres as periodical lattices, in that the tough films were constructed based on soft monodispersed spheres by binding with nanosilica particles.…”

“…This approach is different from the use of normal colloid PBG films using hard spheres as periodical lattices, in that the tough films were constructed based on soft monodispersed spheres by binding with nanosilica particles. In this manner, the binding force was directly supplied by the entirety of the soft spheres, thus, the film exhibited sufficient mechanical durability to withstand further processing, e.g., cutting, puckering, bending etc . Although the film‐formation processes were relatively simple, the PBG films still had to be self‐assembled from blended suspensions at room temperature over the course of one day.…”