Shen Xiuqing, Du Jiayuan, Sun Jiaxin, Guo Jia, Hu Xinhua, Wang Changchun
State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Department of Materials Science, and Key Laboratory of Micro- and Nano-Photonic Structures (Ministry of Education), and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Sep 2;12(35):39639-39648. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c10763. Epub 2020 Aug 18.
Usually, materials with perfect structures possess excellent properties, but it is not always the case. Here, a new approach is reported to construct structural colored hydrogel films with excellent ultraviolet (UV) blocking performance for contact lenses. The theoretical simulation predicts that with perfect periodic structures, the hydrogel films can strongly reflect incident light in a narrow visible wavelength range and thus exhibit extraordinarily brilliant colors. However, such hydrogel films cannot effectively block UV light. By slightly breaking the structural periodicity (quasi-periodic structure), strong diffuse scattering or pseudoabsorption of light can occur for all of the wavelengths shorter than a structural characteristic length, leading to perfect UV blocking. According to the theoretical prediction, a structural colored hydrogel film with nearly periodic polystyrene sphere arrays in poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) hydrogel matrix is fabricated; this hydrogel film possesses brilliant colors and perfect UV blocking, and the core particle composition and size have been investigated in detail for the optimized properties of contact lenses. Meanwhile, the cell proliferation assay proves the cytocompatibility of the hydrogel for real application. Regarding its unique optical characteristics, the as-prepared structural colored hydrogel shows great promise in the fields of UV-protective equipment, medical device, soft robot, sensor, and so on.
通常，具有完美结构的材料拥有优异的性能，但情况并非总是如此。在此，报道了一种新方法，用于构建具有优异紫外线（UV）阻挡性能的结构色水凝胶薄膜，用于隐形眼镜。理论模拟预测，具有完美周期性结构的水凝胶薄膜可以在较窄的可见波长范围内强烈反射入射光，从而呈现出异常鲜艳的颜色。然而，这种水凝胶薄膜不能有效地阻挡紫外线。通过稍微破坏结构周期性（准周期结构），对于所有短于结构特征长度的波长，会发生强烈的漫散射或光的伪吸收，从而实现完美的紫外线阻挡。根据理论预测，制备了一种在聚（甲基丙烯酸羟乙酯）水凝胶基质中具有近周期性聚苯乙烯球体阵列的结构色水凝胶薄膜；这种水凝胶薄膜具有鲜艳的颜色和完美的紫外线阻挡性能，并且已经对核心颗粒组成和尺寸进行了详细研究，以优化隐形眼镜的性能。同时，细胞增殖试验证明了该水凝胶在实际应用中的细胞相容性。鉴于其独特的光学特性，所制备的结构色水凝胶在紫外线防护设备、医疗设备、软机器人、传感器等领域显示出巨大的潜力。
