2006-596-MCP-Simple fabrication of full color colloidal crystal films with tough Mechanical Strength.pdf

Simple Fabrication of Full Color Colloidal Crystal Films with Tough Mechanical Strengtha Jingxia Wang,1 Yongqiang Wen,1 Hongli Ge,1 Zhongwei Sun,1 Yongmei Zheng,1 Yanlin Song,*1 Lei Jiang*1,2 1 Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, P. R. China Fax: (t86)10 E-mail: ylsong@ 2 National Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Beijing 100080, P. R. China E-mail: Leijiang@ Received: December 11, 2005; Accepted: January 23, 2006; DOI: 10.1002/macp.200500563 Keywords: colloidal crystal; core-shell polymers; mechanical strength; self-assembly Introduction Periodic structures,[1,2] such as gratings and photonics crystals, can generate iridescent colors of structural origin based on the Bragg diffraction of light due to their complete manipulation of the propagation of light. The iridescent color produced from periodic structures has attracted considerable attention from both fundamental and practical points of view.[3,4] The color can be changed in response to light, temperature, pH, ionic species and glucose and can be used for sensors and displays.[5,6] Research work on the further application of structure color has also been carried out.[7–13] For example, Xia[9a] developed a photonics paper/ ink system by embedding 3D colloidal crystals with liquids capable of swelling the elastomer, and the system could serve as a reusable recording medium where no pigments would be required for color display. From a practical point of view there are two main drawbacks that restrict the application of colloidal crystal films. One is that a tedious purification procedure (by centrifugation or filtration) needs to be carried out prior to the achievement of monodisperse spheres.[5] The other is the poor mechanical strength of the film with a conventional face-centered cubic (FCC) structure, where the open structure among contacting latex particles and resulting from the air matrix would impair mechanical propertie