Zhang Jing, Zhang Jingjing, Ou Yangteng, Qin Yipeng, Wen Huilin, Dong Weiliang, Wang Rui, Chen Su, Yu Ziyi
State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing, 211816, P. R. China.
Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK.
Small. 2021 Feb;17(8):e2007426. doi: 10.1002/smll.202007426. Epub 2021 Jan 22.
Despite the vast variety of colloidal superstructures available in soft matter photonics, it remains challenging to balance the trade-off between their optical microstructures and material processability. By synergizing colloidal photonics and dynamic chemistry, a type of photonic "plasticine" with characteristics of uniform structural colors, high processability, and self-healing is demonstrated. Specifically, a boronate ester bond-based macromonomer is first prepared through complexation between the diols of polyvinyl alcohol and the boronic acid group of 3-(acrylamido) phenylboronic acid in the presence of concentrated silica colloids. Upon photopolymerization, the dynamic photonic plasticine is formed in situ as the result of the crosslinking of the boronate ester bonded networks. The randomly packed colloids inside the plasticine compose the amorphous photonic crystals, giving rise to angle-independent structural colors that would not compromise during subsequent processing steps; the reversible nature of the boronate ester bonds endows the plasticine with self-adaptable and self-healing properties. Further, the plasticine is also compatible with common shaping methods, that is, cutting, molding, and carving, and thus can be facilely processed into 3D structural colored objects, holding great potentials in fields such as bio-encoding, optical filters, anti-counterfeiting, etc.
尽管软物质光子学中有各种各样的胶体超结构，但在其光学微结构和材料可加工性之间平衡权衡仍具有挑战性。通过将胶体光子学与动态化学相结合，展示了一种具有均匀结构颜色、高可加工性和自愈特性的光子“橡皮泥”。具体而言，首先在浓硅胶体存在下，通过聚乙烯醇的二醇与3-(丙烯酰胺基)苯硼酸的硼酸基团之间的络合制备基于硼酸酯键的大分子单体。光聚合时，硼酸酯键合网络交联，原位形成动态光子橡皮泥。橡皮泥内部随机堆积的胶体构成非晶态光子晶体，产生与角度无关的结构颜色，在后续加工步骤中不会受损；硼酸酯键的可逆性质赋予橡皮泥自适应和自愈特性。此外，橡皮泥还与常见的成型方法兼容，即切割、模塑和雕刻，因此可以轻松加工成三维结构彩色物体，在生物编码、光学滤波器、防伪等领域具有巨大潜力。
