Facile Fabrication of Tough SiC Inverse Opal Photonic Crystals

In this work, large-scale SiC inverse opal photonic crystals (PCs) with stopbands covering the entire UV-vis-NIR range have been first fabricated via sacrificial template method. The resultant PCs show superhydrophilicity, tough solvent resistance and high mechanical strength, whose structure color keeps almost constant after immersed in organic solvents or strong acid/base solutions for longer than 120 h. The hardness and Young's modulus of the achieved PCs can reach 0.56 and 25 GPa respectively, which is the highest value for inverse opal PCs. Moreover, enhanced photoluminescence of SiC can be achieved with optimized PC stopband. This large-scale fabrication of SiC PCs with good optical property will greatly extend the practical applications of PCs in harsh environments.