Issue 23, 2021

Structural color from solid-state polymerization-induced phase separation

Abstract

Structural colors are produced by wavelength-dependent scattering of light from nanostructures. While living organisms often exploit phase separation to directly assemble structurally colored materials from macromolecules, synthetic structural colors are typically produced in a two-step process involving the sequential synthesis and assembly of building blocks. Phase separation is attractive for its simplicity, but applications are limited due to a lack of robust methods for its control. A central challenge is to arrest phase separation at the desired length scale. Here, we show that solid-state polymerization-induced phase separation can produce stable structures at optical length scales. In this process, a polymeric solid is swollen and softened with a second monomer. During its polymerization, the two polymers become immiscible and phase separate. As free monomer is depleted, the host matrix resolidifies and arrests coarsening. The resulting polymeric composites have a blue or white appearance. We compare these biomimetic nanostructures to those in structurally-colored feather barbs, and demonstrate the flexibility of this approach by producing structural color in filaments and large sheets.

Graphical abstract: Structural color from solid-state polymerization-induced phase separation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 2月 2021
Accepted
11 5月 2021
First published
17 5月 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Soft Matter, 2021,17, 5772-5779

Structural color from solid-state polymerization-induced phase separation

A. Sicher, R. Ganz, A. Menzel, D. Messmer, G. Panzarasa, M. Feofilova, R. O. Prum, R. W. Style, V. Saranathan, R. M. Rossi and E. R. Dufresne, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 5772 DOI: 10.1039/D1SM00210D

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