Functional Polymer‐Opals from Core–Shell Colloids

Abstract

Colloidal photonic crystals were prepared from monodisperse core–shell particles. The shell is hereby formed from a functional monomer, such as glycidylmethacrylate or different reactive ester monomers, which can perform chemical reactions and the core from a standard monomer, which yields highly monodisperse colloids. It was possible to crystallize the core–shell particles into artificial opals with excellent optical properties. Reactions on the functional surface of the colloids were carried out, which lead to a dramatic rise in the mechanical stability or to a functionalization of His‐tagged silicatein, which acts as nanoreactor to synthesize and immobilize gold nanoparticles from auric acid onto the core–shell colloids.magnified image

Layer‐by‐Layer Approach to (2+1)D Photonic Crystal Superlattice with Enhanced Crystalline Integrity

“…PCs have been regarded as optical semiconductors because of their ability of controlling the flow of light in a similar manner as what semiconductors do for electrons . Analogous to doping in semiconductor, optical “doping” has been attempted by incorporating artificial defects (point, line, and planar defects) into PCs . These doped PCs have been endowed with different types of optical functionality by creating defect states within the photonic bandgaps.…”

Architecture of polymer particles composed of brush structure at surfaces and construction of colloidal crystals

“…Lange et al [9] reported the synthesis method of monodisperse PtBMA particles by surfactant-free emulsion polymerization. CCPs (CCP1-CCP4) were also prepared by similar surfactant-free emulsion polymerization in the presence of crosslinker EGDMA according to their work.…”

“…Polymer particles are an effective tool to improve surface property [4,5]. An ideal encapsulation regime should allow the facile adjustment of shell thickness, mechanical strength, and surface potential [6][7][8][9]. The best facile method for the synthesis of the ideal encapsulated polymer particles is the grafting-from approach, where the hyperbranched photoinitiators are attached to the colloidal particles, and then linear chains are grown from the surface to give the covalently attached brush chains using the photo-induced atom transfer radical polymerization [10][11][12][13].…”

Shaping Polymer Particles by Carbon Nanotubes

“…[1][2][3] In general, spherical polymer particles are thermodynamically most stable. To obtain nonspherical polymer particles, previous research has focused on physical deformation of spherical polymer particles with subsequent cross-linking or freezing of the non-equilibrium shapes.…”