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Structural color from pigment-loaded nanostructures

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

T. Sai
L.S. Froufe-Pérez
F. Scheffold
B.D. Wilts
E.R. Dufresne

Abstract

Color can originate from wavelength-dependence in the absorption of pigments or the scattering of nanostructures. While synthetic colors are dominated by the former, vivid structural colors found in nature have inspired much research on the latter. However, many of the most vibrant colors in nature involve the interactions of structure and pigment. Here, we demonstrate that pigment can be exploited to efficiently create bright structural color at wavelengths outside its absorption band. We created pigment-enhanced Bragg reflectors by sequentially spin-coating layers of poly-vinyl alcohol (PVA) and polystyrene (PS) loaded with β-carotene (BC). With only 10 double layers, we achieved a peak reflectance over 0.8 at 550 nm and normal incidence. A pigment-free multilayer made of the same materials would require 25 double layers to achieve the same reflectance. Further, pigment loading suppressed the Bragg reflector's characteristic iridescence. Using numerical simulations, we further show that similar pigment loadings could significantly expand the gamut of non-iridescent colors addressable by photonic glasses. © 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Date Published

Journal

Soft Matter

Volume

19

Issue

40

Number of Pages

7717-7723,

ISBN Number

1744683X (ISSN)

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85174484929&doi=10.1039%2fd3sm00961k&partnerID=40&md5=22ee4e033e9968839982cf333b56a57d

DOI

10.1039/d3sm00961k

Alternate Journal

Soft Matter

Group (Lab)

Eric Dufresne Group

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