Issue 44, 2016, Issue in Progress

Preparation of structurally colored films assembled by using polystyrene@silica, air@silica and air@carbon@silica core–shell nanoparticles with enhanced color visibility

Abstract

Polystyrene@silica (PS@SiO2) core–shell nanospheres were synthesized using a surfactant free method followed by a modified Stöber method in the research reported in this paper. Hollow SiO2 was obtained by calcining the PS@SiO2 core–shell nanoparticles (NPs) at 500 °C in air and air@C@SiO2 (where C represents carbon) was prepared by calcining PS@SiO2 in argon (Ar). Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to confirm the formation of a homogeneous SiO2 shell on the negatively charged PS beads. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy element mapping was utilized to confirm the existence and homogeneity of the C layer in the air@C@SiO2 nanospheres. After calcination, C partly remained inside the SiO2 shell and functioned as an absorbent material. The advantages of using negatively charged PS beads to prepare PS@SiO2 core–shell NPs and calcination of PS@SiO2 in Ar to prepare hollow SiO2 are: (1) the lower cost compared with the positively charged PS beads, because the negatively charged PS beads could be obtained by using cheap anionic initiators (such as potassium persulfate); (2) the color saturation of the photonic crystals (PCs) composed from hollow SiO2 is significantly enhanced without disturbing the PCs arrays when the calcination process is carried out in Ar. Hollow SiO2 PCs with enhanced color saturation will enrich the application of core–shell structures in many fields such as bionic colors, paintings, cosmetics, and photonic papers.

Graphical abstract: Preparation of structurally colored films assembled by using polystyrene@silica, air@silica and air@carbon@silica core–shell nanoparticles with enhanced color visibility

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Dec 2015
Accepted
21 Mar 2016
First published
22 Mar 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 37535-37543

Author version available

Preparation of structurally colored films assembled by using polystyrene@silica, air@silica and air@carbon@silica core–shell nanoparticles with enhanced color visibility

F. Wang, X. Zhang, J. Zhu and Y. Lin, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 37535 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA25680A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements