Socially‐Directed Development of Materials for Structural Color

Abstract

Advancing a socially‐directed approach to materials research and development is an imperative to address contemporary challenges and mitigate future detrimental environmental and social impacts. This paper reviews, synergizes, and identifies cross‐disciplinary opportunities at the intersection of materials science and engineering with humanistic social sciences fields. Such integrated knowledge and methodologies foster a contextual understanding of materials technologies embedded within, and impacting broader societal systems, thus informing decision making upstream and throughout the entire research and development process toward more socially responsible outcomes. Technological advances in the development of structural color, which arises due to the incoherent and coherent scattering of micro‐and nanoscale features and possesses a vast design space, are considered in this context. Specific areas of discussion include material culture, narratives, and visual perception, material waste and use, environmental and social life cycle assessment, and stakeholder and community engagement. A case study of the technical and social implications of bio‐based cellulose (as a source for structurally colored products) is provided. Socially‐directed research and development of materials for structural color hold significant capacity for improved planetary and societal impact across industries such as aerospace, consumer products, displays and sensors, paints and dyes, and food and agriculture.

Structurally colored aramid fabric construction and its application as a recyclable photonic catalyst

“…Structural color widely exists in nature, as a type of physical color which originates from coherent and incoherent scattering of visible light from periodic micro-/nanostructures. [1][2][3][4][5] In particular, the non-iridescent structural colors constructed from amorphous photonic crystals (APCs) have exhibited unique properties upon varying the size and order of the crystals. To date, APCs have been made in bulk, on flat substrates, and on fabrics in daily use, using spray coating, dip-coating, selfassembly methods, etc.…”

“…Until now no one has constructed PCs on aramid fibers or fabrics successfully. Nevertheless, if PCs can be constructed on the surface of aramid fibers or fabrics, the advantages are also obvious: (1) endowing the aramid fibers with bright colors without the use of organic dyes; (2) reducing the degradation of aramid fibers due to UV irradiation; (3) increasing the thermal stability of aramid. Therefore, to successfully construct PCs on the surface of aramid, we refer to the previous methods of constructing photonic crystals on the surface of other fabrics to produce PC coated aramid fabrics with bright colors.…”

“…where l max is the peak position of PC materials in the reflection spectrum, d is the average interparticle distance in the quasiamorphous structure, y is the incident angle and n eff is the effective refractive index which can be determined from eqn (2):…”

Bioinspired MXene-Based Soft Actuators Exhibiting Angle-Independent Structural Color

“…Furthermore, bioinspired, living, structurally colored soft actuators were reported by assembling engineered cardiomyocyte tissues onto synthetic inverse opal hydrogels, where autonomous shape and color regulation capability was enabled by the cell contraction and elongation in the beating processes of the cardiomyocytes [15]. Compared to chemically colored soft actuators loaded with dyes or pigments [16][17][18][19], physically colored (structurally colored) soft actuators integrated with photonic crystals display brilliant colors that are dynamically tunable by adjusting the lattice constant or refractive index and never fade as long as the periodic structures persist [20][21][22][23][24][25]. However, the structural color of soft actuators reported thus far is dependent on the viewing and light illumination angles, which is one of the critical limitations compared with chemically colored soft actuators.…”

Janus Microdroplets with Tunable Self‐Recoverable and Switchable Reflective Structural Colors

“…Chiral liquid crystals (CLCs) [ 1 ] that self‐organize into helical arrangements can selectively reflect light with a specific range of wavelengths. Compared to the colors generated from dyes and pigments, structural colors [ 2 ] offer many advantages, such as being fade‐resistant, environment‐friendly, energy‐efficient, long‐lasting, and highly stable. More importantly, the colors can be tuned by the change of helical pitch in response to external stimuli, leading to broad applications ranging from dye‐free color coatings, [ 3 ] stimuli‐responsive coloring, [ 4 ] colorimetric sensors, [ 5 ] and reflective color displays.…”