Structural Colored Fabrics with Brilliant Colors, Low Angle Dependence, and High Color Fastness Based on the Mie Scattering of Cu₂O Spheres

Abstract

Compared with conventional textile coloring with dyes and pigments, structural colored fabrics have attracted broad attention due to the advantages of eco-friendliness, brilliant colors, and anti-fading properties. The most investigated structural color on fabrics is originated from a band gap of multilayered photonic crystals or amorphous photonic structures. However, limited by the nature of the color generation mechanism and a multilayered structure, it is challenging to achieve structural colored fabrics with brilliant noniridescent colors and high fastness. Here, we propose an alternative strategy for coloring a fabric based on the scattering of Cu2O single-crystal spheres. The disordered Cu2O thin layers (<0.6 μm) on the surface of fabrics were prepared by a spraying method, which can generate vivid noniridescent structural color due to the strong Mie scattering of Cu2O single-crystal spheres. Importantly, the great mechanical stability of the structural color was realized by firmly binding Cu2O spheres to the fabric using a commercial binder. The structural color can be tuned by changing the diameter of Cu2O spheres. Furthermore, complex patterns can be easily obtained by spray coating Cu2O spheres with different particle sizes using a mask. According to color fastness test standards, the dry rubbing, wet rubbing, and light fastness of the structural color on fabric can reach level 5, level 4, and level 6, respectively, which is sufficient to resist rubbing, photobleaching, washing, rinsing, kneading, stretching, and other external mechanical forces. This coloring method may carve a practical avenue in textile coloring and has potentials in other practical applications of structural color.

Monodisperse colloidal spheres with a high refractive index: their synthesis, assembly and application in structural colored materials

“…115 Wu and co-workers spray-coated monodisperse single crystal Cu 2 O spheres evenly onto a fabric for coloring. 116 Due to the strong Mie scattering effect of these high refractive index spheres, the disordered Cu 2 O thin layers exhibited vivid non-iridescent structural colors. The fabric was pre-treated with commercial polyacrylate, which firmly fixed Cu 2 O spheres onto the fabric surface and greatly promoted the mechanical stability to satisfy practical applications.…”

Construction of Wash-Resistant Photonic Crystal-Coated Fabrics based on Hydrogen Bonds and a Dynamically Cross-Linking Double-Network Structure

“…Structural colors, which are different from those produced by pigments or chemical dyes, derived from the reflection and scattering of light with periodic micro- or nanostructures, are also known as photonic crystals (PCs). − Structural coloration as the most possible way to realize the ecofriendly dying process for textiles or fabrics has attracted great attention in the past decades. ,− Now, different strategies have been made to construct PCs on textiles or fabrics, including methods such as dip-coating, spray coating, ,, self-assembly, ,, electrophoretic deposition, and screen print . An ideal structural colored fabric/textile for daily use needs to be bright colored, wash resistant, rub resistant.…”

“…1−6 Structural coloration as the most possible way to realize the ecofriendly dying process for textiles or fabrics has attracted great attention in the past decades. 4,7−9 Now, different strategies have been made to construct PCs on textiles or fabrics, including methods such as dip-coating, 7 spray coating, 3,10,11 selfassembly, 4,8,9 electrophoretic deposition, 12 and screen print. 13 An ideal structural colored fabric/textile for daily use needs to be bright colored, wash resistant, rub resistant.…”

Effect of Solvents on the Color Recovery Responses of Swollen Structural-Color Epoxy Films Based on Inverse Opal Photonic Crystals

“…According to Bragg’s equation, the main parameters affecting the structure color are the effective refractive index (RI), the thickness, and the lattice constant. , Therefore, the optical properties of the materials can be designed by changing the RI via the absorption of the target materials or tuning the particle size of colloidal crystals by swelling them with chemical reagents. Based on these advantages, structural color materials have been widely investigated in the fields of medical sensors, , solvent and gas sensors, − anticounterfeiting, − color displays, − and so forth.…”