Instant Photonic Crystals with a Flap

Colloidal particle-assembled photonic crystals offer sustainable alternatives to traditional structural color materials, but their commercial use is limited by low optical quality and slow fabrication. We demonstrate that embedding colloidal particles in suitable matrix materials and adjusting particle volume fraction can accelerate fabrication by 10<sup>2</sup>-10<sup>6</sup> times while maintaining high optical performance. Using common materials such as glycerol and honey, we show that uniform photonic crystals with sharp 90% reflectance peaks can rapidly form under oscillatory shear induced by hand-flapping or roll-to-roll processing at meter-per-second speeds. A single shear oscillation within 0.05-0.5 s produces highly ordered structures that typically require thousands of oscillations. We analyze the mechanisms governing efficient photonic crystal assembly and outline practical principles for scalable production.

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Publication Details

Journal
ACS Nano
Published
2025-11-10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c10236
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Photonic Crystals and Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.25
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article

Instant Photonic Crystals with a Flap

Wei Cheng YOU, Ge Wang, Tong An, Xinyu Jiang et al.
1 citations
ACS Nano
Photonic Crystals and Applications
1.25
article

Instant Photonic Crystals with a Flap

Wei Cheng YOU, Ge Wang, Tong An, Xinyu Jiang, Feng Gao, Tongxiang Fan, Junjun Qiu, Tan Sui, Wei Yu, Xiuhong Li, Christian Schäfer, Nan Shi, Qibin Zhao, Bin Zhu
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Colloidal particle-assembled photonic crystals offer sustainable alternatives to traditional structural color materials, but their commercial use is limited by low optical quality and slow fabrication. We demonstrate that embedding colloidal particles in suitable matrix materials and adjusting particle volume fraction can accelerate fabrication by 10<sup>2</sup>-10<sup>6</sup> times while maintaining high optical performance. Using common materials such as glycerol and honey, we show that uniform photonic crystals with sharp 90% reflectance peaks can rapidly form under oscillatory shear induced by hand-flapping or roll-to-roll processing at meter-per-second speeds. A single shear oscillation within 0.05-0.5 s produces highly ordered structures that typically require thousands of oscillations. We analyze the mechanisms governing efficient photonic crystal assembly and outline practical principles for scalable production.

ACS NanoVol. 19(46)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN), University of Surrey (GB), Metal Matrix Cast Composites (United States) (US), BASF (Germany) (DE), Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics (BY), Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Analysis Group (United States) (US), Robert Bosch (Germany) (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Photonic Crystals and Applications
1.25
DOISourceOpenAlex
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