Construction of photonic crystal structural colors on white polyester fabrics

Recently, it has become a novel technology to obtain structural color on fabric and has become a research hotspot in the textile field. However, the researchers still use fabric dyed with black dye as substrates, which does not meet the requirements of clean dyeing. In this work, we aimed at changing the status quo that most structural color fabrics are designed based on black fabrics. SiO2@PDA microspheres with inorganic microspheres SiO2 as the core and black polydopamine as the shell were successfully prepared. White polyester fabrics were taken as substrates to constructing SiO2@PDA photonic crystal structural colors via vertical deposition self-assembly method (VDSM). The morphology and composition of SiO2@PDA microspheres were investigated. The morphology and optical properties of the resultant structural color fabrics were characterized by FESEM and 3D video microscope. The results showed that SiO2@PDA microspheres have good sphericity, monodispersity, exhibiting and with a distinct core-shell structure formed an ordered colloidal array with vacancies and defects on the polyester fabrics by VSDM, which appeared bright, vivid and low angle-dependent structural colors under the visible light. The different structural colors can be obtained by adjusting the size of the SiO2@PDA microspheres and viewing angle, following the Bragg diffraction law. Notably, SiO2@PDA microspheres with black polydopamine shells have the functionality of absorbing incoherently scattered light and can be used to obtain structural colors directly on white fabric substrates, which significantly simplified the preparation process of structural color fabrics.

Automated summary

By using SiO2@PDA microspheres on white polyester fabric, bright, vivid, and angle-independent structural colors can be achieved. Different structural colors can be obtained by adjusting the size of the SiO2@PDA microspheres and viewing angle. SiO2@PDA microspheres can absorb incoherently scattered light, enabling the direct formation of structural colors on white fabric substrates.