Tough Photonic Crystals Fabricated by Photo-Crosslinkage of Latex Spheres

A general method to enhance the mechanical properties and solvent resistance of photonic crystals (PCs) has been demonstrated. This is carried out by the crosslinkage of latex spheres via photopolymerization of acrylamide (AAm) infiltrated among them. The crosslinked PAAm enhances the interaction among latex spheres of the PCs film, and contributes to the improvement of mechanical strength and solvent resistance. The result provides a simple approach to make tough PCs films by photo-crosslinkage, and can be extended to a wide variety of materials, will be of great importance for the practical application of PCs.