Issue 40, 2023

Structural color from pigment-loaded nanostructures

Abstract

Color can originate from wavelength-dependence in the absorption of pigments or the scattering of nanostructures. While synthetic colors are dominated by the former, vivid structural colors found in nature have inspired much research on the latter. However, many of the most vibrant colors in nature involve the interactions of structure and pigment. Here, we demonstrate that pigment can be exploited to efficiently create bright structural color at wavelengths outside its absorption band. We created pigment-enhanced Bragg reflectors by sequentially spin-coating layers of poly-vinyl alcohol (PVA) and polystyrene (PS) loaded with β-carotene (BC). With only 10 double layers, we achieved a peak reflectance over 0.8 at 550 nm and normal incidence. A pigment-free multilayer made of the same materials would require 25 double layers to achieve the same reflectance. Further, pigment loading suppressed the Bragg reflector's characteristic iridescence. Using numerical simulations, we further show that similar pigment loadings could significantly expand the gamut of non-iridescent colors addressable by photonic glasses.

Graphical abstract: Structural color from pigment-loaded nanostructures

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jul 2023
Accepted
06 Sep 2023
First published
11 Sep 2023

Soft Matter, 2023,19, 7717-7723

Structural color from pigment-loaded nanostructures

T. Sai, L. S. Froufe-Pérez, F. Scheffold, B. D. Wilts and E. R. Dufresne, Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 7717 DOI: 10.1039/D3SM00961K

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