Coordination-bond-driven fabrication of crack-free photonic crystals

Shi, Xiaodi; Liu, W. Y.; Zhao, Di; Li, X. T.; Dou, Rui; Shea, Kenneth J.; Lu, Xihua

doi:10.1039/c6tc01792d

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…17 Third, the most common explanation of crack generation is that high adhesive interaction with the hard substrate is in contradiction with colloid shrinkage. 18,19 In a typical evaporation self-assembly process, the hydrophilic substrate is immersed in the colloidal suspension. As the solvent evaporates, the colloidal particles at the outmost liquid surface are first assembled into a tightly packing structure by surface tension, and the bottommost colloidal particles move upward.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly of Crack-Free Photonic Crystals: Fundamentals, Emerging Strategies, and Perspectives

Xie

et al. 2023

Acc. Mater. Res.

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Conspectus Photonic crystals (PCs) with a periodically arranged structure have aroused enormous interest in the regulation of photon motion for their unique property of a photonic band gap (PBG), which can block the propagation of specific electromagnetic waves. The PBG is generated by the periodic modulation of the refractive indices between the building blocks and surrounding medium, which could lead to a vivid structural color when PBG is located in the visible spectra. Because of the special properties of maneuvering and controlling photons in the visible range, considerable attention has been devoted to the PC in relation to various applications in color signage, display, biological and chemical sensors, detection, optoelectronic devices, etc. Notably, PCs have long existed in nature, such as gem opals, which are natural silica gel particle aggregations. Many creatures also comprise the PC nanostructures to adapt to nature, for example, butterfly, peacock, chameleon, and so forth. Inspired by nature, the bottom-up self-assembly of colloidal nanoparticles has been manifested to be a convenient manmade method to construct PC nanostructures. Similar to the synthesis of new compound molecules by the chemical bonding of atoms, colloidal nanoparticles can be driven to form aggregates with a periodic ordered structure by physical or chemical driving forces, such as capillary forces and surface tension, hydrogen bonds, van der Waals forces, etc. Typically, such nanoparticles consist of SiO2, ZnO, Fe3O4, or organic polymers (polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), etc.). The nanoparticle assembly process is governed by preferential thermodynamic states to stack together in a minimized free energy. However, the self-assembly of colloidal nanoparticles is easily susceptible to various external factors (solvent, substrate, temperature, concentration, zeta potential, pH, etc.), accidentally leading to the formation of unfavorable defects. Large-scale preparation of crack-free PCs is the critical limit for real-world application of PCs industrialization. Recently, the research on the mechanism and eliminating methods of defect creation in the colloidal PC assembly process has become an important research hotspot. This Account reviews the research progress on the crack-free PCs assembly methods, including the fundamental theory of PCs assembly, the formation mechanisms and elimination methods of assembly defects based on the assembly driving force manipulation, and developing high-quality colloidal nanoparticles. We outline three main mechanisms of crack generation during PC self-assembly, in which the assembly driving forces that are influenced by external factors to break the dynamic balance of colloidal particle assembly are discussed in detail. Subsequently, a series of crack elimination strategies, like novel high-performance assembly unit preparation (acrylic ester, tertiary-carbon, and fluorinated colloidal particles) and various assembly driving forces introduction, including h...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly of Crack-Free Photonic Crystals: Fundamentals, Emerging Strategies, and Perspectives

Xie

et al. 2023

Acc. Mater. Res.

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“…Moreover, structural defects that arise from the capillary force among the colloidal particles upon solvent evaporation are inevitable. [ 21,22 ] In this respect, taking advantage of the strong electrostatic repulsion between colloids, Asher group reported the direct preparation of crystalline colloidal arrays in diverse polymer matrix and gels, which enables high‐quality crystal structures and excellent optical performance. [ 23 ] More recently, Jeong group [ 24 ] explored a dry assembly process to produce colloidal monolayers with a perfect spatial registry on flat or curved substrates, in which dry particle powders were able to be rubbed with fingertips or with a small piece of rubber on solid substrates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photonic Plasticines with Uniform Structural Colors, High Processability, and Self‐Healing Properties

Zhang

et al. 2021

Small

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Despite the vast variety of colloidal superstructures available in soft matter photonics, it remains challenging to balance the trade‐off between their optical microstructures and material processability. By synergizing colloidal photonics and dynamic chemistry, a type of photonic “plasticine” with characteristics of uniform structural colors, high processability, and self‐healing is demonstrated. Specifically, a boronate ester bond‐based macromonomer is first prepared through complexation between the diols of polyvinyl alcohol and the boronic acid group of 3‐(acrylamido) phenylboronic acid in the presence of concentrated silica colloids. Upon photopolymerization, the dynamic photonic plasticine is formed in situ as the result of the crosslinking of the boronate ester bonded networks. The randomly packed colloids inside the plasticine compose the amorphous photonic crystals, giving rise to angle‐independent structural colors that would not compromise during subsequent processing steps; the reversible nature of the boronate ester bonds endows the plasticine with self‐adaptable and self‐healing properties. Further, the plasticine is also compatible with common shaping methods, that is, cutting, molding, and carving, and thus can be facilely processed into 3D structural colored objects, holding great potentials in fields such as bio‐encoding, optical filters, anti‐counterfeiting, etc.

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“…However, it remains challenging to develop large-area colloidal PC films with crack-free morphology and the high-saturation structural color due to the weak interaction between the conventional colloidal particles, e.g., polystyrene (PS), , poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) particles. Many efforts have been made to promote the assembly efficiency of PC films by monodisperse colloidal particles recently. − Coupling the colloidal particles with functional nanomaterials or grafting particular chemical groups have been successfully applied to synthesize high-performance colloidal particles for crack-free PC film-forming reinforcement. − For instance, Shen’s group coated polydopamine on PS nanoparticles (PS@PDA NPs) to fabricate amorphous PCs without apparent defects, which show an enhanced color contrast and low angle dependence due to the covalent bonding of coated colloidal particles . Chen’s group proposed a strategy to construct crack-free PC films by coordination effect among the Ag-loaded dendrimer functionalized polystyrene colloidal particles .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon Dot-Functionalized Colloidal Particles for Patterning and Controllable Layer-Structured Photonic Crystals Construction

Liu

Xie

et al. 2021

ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.

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The cracked morphology and iridescent properties of photonic crystal (PC) films have greatly limited their applications in the field of color pigments and optical instruments. Herein, we fabricated crack-free PC films with a controllable microscopic ordered structure by functionalizing carbon dots (CDs) onto poly(styrene-methyl methacylate-acrylic acid) (P(S-MMA-AA)) particles, enhancing the structural color contrast and saturation. Using the third-generation polyamidoamine (G3-PAMAM) dendrimer as a bridge, the CDs are coupled onto the P(S-MMA-AA) particles through the terminal amino groups of G3-PAMAM. The hydrogen bonds, derived from the grafted G3-PAMAM and CDs, effectively counteract the tensile stress of particle shrinkage during evaporation self-assembly, thereby enabling the formation of high-performance PC films. Moreover, due to the light absorption capacity and nanoscale effect of CDs, the CDs/P(S-MMA-AA) particles could be constructed to form robust PC films without the iridescence effect and effectively suppress the coffee-ring effect, which are developed to the colloidal PC ink for direct writing and patterning. Eventually, based on the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) method, the CDs/P(S-MMA-AA) PC films with a controllable layer-structure are constructed, achieving the structural color regulation, which is expected to be applied to the design of smart windows.

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Coordination-bond-driven fabrication of crack-free photonic crystals

Cited by 20 publications

References 42 publications

Assembly of Crack-Free Photonic Crystals: Fundamentals, Emerging Strategies, and Perspectives

Assembly of Crack-Free Photonic Crystals: Fundamentals, Emerging Strategies, and Perspectives

Photonic Plasticines with Uniform Structural Colors, High Processability, and Self‐Healing Properties

Carbon Dot-Functionalized Colloidal Particles for Patterning and Controllable Layer-Structured Photonic Crystals Construction

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