Mechanochromic Photonic‐Crystal Fibers Based on Continuous Sheets of Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

A new family of mechanochromic photonic-crystal fibers exhibits tunable structural colors under stretching. This novel mechanochromic fiber is prepared by depositing polymer microspheres onto a continuous aligned-carbon-nanotube sheet that has been wound on an elastic poly(dimethylsiloxane) fiber, followed by further embedding in poly(dimethylsiloxane). The color of the fiber can be tuned by varying the size and the center-to-center distance of the polymer spheres. It further experiences reversible and rapid multicolor changes during the stretch and release processes, for example, between red, green, and blue. Both the high sensitivity and stability were maintained after 1000 deformation cycles. These elastic photonic-crystal fibers were woven into patterns and smart fabrics for various display and sensing applications.

Tunable Structural Color Patterns Based on the Visible‐Light‐Responsive Dynamic Diselenide Metathesis

“…These artificial structural color materials can be fabricated by the self‐organization and phase separation of block copolymers,12,21 self‐assembly of colloidal crystal,22–25 lithography of template,26 etc. In general, these materials are equipped with reversible responsiveness to one or more external stimuli at the same time, such as mechanical force,27 temperature change,28 magnetic field,29,30 vapor,31,32 light,33 electric field,34,35 etc. Compared with other stimuli, visible light is more abundant, accessible, and can be perceived by humans directly.…”

Structural Coloration of Colloidal Fiber by Photonic Band Gap and Resonant Mie Scattering

“…Due to increased awareness of ecological sustainability, development of dye-free fibers based on natural coloration is a growing area of research [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] . Several groups have recently attempted fabricating structurally colored cylindrical fibers 26-30, 33, 34 , with a general concept of using colloidal spheres to form a periodic structure along the fibers.…”

A Patterned Mechanochromic Photonic Polymer for Reversible Image Reveal

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octopus, and so on) are able to produce a wide range of structural colors and photonic patterns to signal and communicate with their own species and others. [8][9][10] Mechanochromic photonic materials, which change structural color in response to mechanical stimuli, are attractive for a wide range of applications such as strain mapping, [11,12] stress sensing, [13][14][15][16] anti-counterfeiting, [17][18][19] tunable optical devices, [20,21] and so on. [8][9][10] Mechanochromic photonic materials, which change structural color in response to mechanical stimuli, are attractive for a wide range of applications such as strain mapping, [11,12] stress sensing, [13][14][15][16] anti-counterfeiting, [17][18][19] tunable optical devices, [20,21] and so on.

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“…[4,7] Inspired by nature, scientific efforts have been devoted to develop smart photonic materials which inform the user by changing their structural color. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Among these smart materials, cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) have garnered significant attention in the Different materials, such as inorganic, polymeric, and hybrid components have been used to fabricate these mechanochromic photonic devices.…”