Photonic nanoarchitectonics with stimuli-responsive 2D materials

Focus on Materials Nanoarchitectonics.

Photonic water dynamically responsive to external stimuli

Fluids that contain ordered nanostructures with periodic distances in the visible-wavelength range, anomalously exhibit structural colours that can be rapidly modulated by external stimuli. Indeed, some fish can dynamically change colour by modulating the periodic distance of crystalline guanine sheets cofacially oriented in their fluid cytoplasm. Here we report that a dilute aqueous colloidal ...

Stimuli-responsive 2D polyelectrolyte photonic crystals for optically encoded pH sensing.

A versatile photonic crystal sensing motif based on a two-dimensional (2D) inverse opal monolayer of stimuli-responsive polyelectrolyte gel with tunable optical properties is reported. The photonic membrane shows prompt response to pH and can be readily read out from either its optical spectra or interference colours.

Emerging applications of stimuli-responsive polymer materials.

Responsive polymer materials can adapt to surrounding environments, regulate transport of ions and molecules, change wettability and adhesion of different species on external stimuli, or convert chemical and biochemical signals into optical, electrical, thermal and mechanical signals, and vice versa. These materials are playing an increasingly important part in a diverse range of applications, ...

Clickable inverse opal: a useful platform for fabrication of stimuli-responsive photonic materials.

Based on azide-containing clickable inverse opal, a strategy for efficiently fabricating functional photonic materials was developed. By using three types of ethynylated compounds as model molecules, it is found that different functional groups can be facilely introduced into the prepared inverse opal via click reaction to access various inverse opaline materials.