Cui Lu, Wang Juan, Liu Menglin, Fan Wenxin, Sui Kunyan
College of Materials Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Bio-Fiber and Eco-textiles, Collaborative Innovation Center for Marine Biobased Fibers and Ecological textile technology Institute of Marine Biobased Materials, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, P. R. China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2025 Jan 8;17(1):2250-2260. doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c17805. Epub 2024 Dec 18.
Mimicking natural organisms to directly fabricate multiresponsive structural color patterns from small molecules is of great significance for information encryption but remains challenging. Herein, we present a bionic entanglement-interlocking microphase separation strategy for in situ growth of multiresponsive structural color patterns within hydrogel matrixes. The precursor solutions of common polymerization-induced phase-separated materials are used as small-molecule nutrients. The newly generated polymer networks can thus spontaneously collapse into phase-separated microspheres within hydrogels during polymerization. In particular, the dense internetwork entanglements form between the microspheres and hydrogel networks during phase separation, anchoring the microspheres firmly onto hydrogel networks to hinder their gathering. Consequently, these newly grown microspheres can be maintained at the desired nanoscale for yielding the structural blue color by light scattering. Multiresponsive schemochrome patterns can be readily created by growing different microspheres within hydrogel matrixes for multiple information encryptions. We demonstrate that this facile self-growth strategy is applicable to different polymerization-induced phase-separated materials and hydrogel matrixes, regardless of cross-linking modes and geometries.
模仿天然生物体直接从小分子制备多响应结构色图案对于信息加密具有重要意义，但仍然具有挑战性。在此，我们提出了一种仿生缠结-联锁微相分离策略，用于在水凝胶基质中原位生长多响应结构色图案。常见的聚合诱导相分离材料的前驱体溶液用作小分子养分。因此，新生成的聚合物网络在聚合过程中可在水凝胶内自发坍缩成相分离的微球。特别地，在相分离过程中，微球与水凝胶网络之间形成密集的网络缠结，将微球牢固地锚定在水凝胶网络上以阻碍它们聚集。因此，这些新生长的微球可以维持在所需的纳米尺度，通过光散射产生结构蓝色。通过在水凝胶基质中生长不同的微球以进行多重信息加密，可以轻松创建多响应变色图案。我们证明，这种简便的自生长策略适用于不同的聚合诱导相分离材料和水凝胶基质，而与交联模式和几何形状无关。
