Self-assembly of silica colloidal crystal thin films with tuneable structural colours
Abstract
Colloidal crystal thin films that produce structural colours over a wide visible spectrum have been self-assembled from silica nanoparticles using a natural sedimentation method. The silica nanoparticles were deposited under the force of gravity and self-assembled into an ordered array. The arrangement of particles and thus the resultant color can be controlled by controlling process variables such as particle size, concentration and curing time.
Used in syntheses
Questions this source addresses
- How can we make structural color on a large scale?
- How closely can we copy the color-making structures found in nature?
- What tiny shapes can make colors out of light?
- Where do colors come from when there is no pigment?
- How do sedimentation, evaporation-induced assembly, and vertical deposition compare as fabrication routes for colloidal photonic crystal thin films?
- How does Bragg diffraction from a face-centered cubic colloidal lattice determine the reflected wavelength of structural color?
- How does natural sedimentation of silica nanoparticles produce ordered photonic crystal films without specialized equipment?
- Which process variables control the resulting structural color of a sedimented silica colloidal crystal film?