Flexible Plastic Industrial-Scale Photonic Crystals for Functional Colour

在每一种消费品中，颜色的使用是无处不在的。然而，随着人们对环境的日益关注，传统染料的使用也出现了问题。这为通过雕刻小于百万分之一米的材料来产生颜色开辟了新的机会，这些材料由良性成分组成。此外，结构颜色（彩虹色、棱镜色、多色调或发光色）的新可能性在移动电子、时尚和汽车/航空等竞争激烈的市场中具有普遍的吸引力。我们发明了一种新工艺来制作具有吸引人的结构颜色的塑料薄膜，可以扩大到工业生产水平。它是基于周期性地排列堆叠的纳米球，这些纳米球的光密度与周围环境不同，称为3D光子晶体。到目前为止，还没有办法制造工业规模的廉价光子晶体。我们的方法是基于制造塑料球体前体，它们可以加热并挤压在一起，这样它们就可以相互滑动，形成完美的排列。通过在球体之间加入微小的纳米粒子（尺寸小上百倍），我们可以制造出各种各样的新材料或纤维，这些材料或纤维具有“鲜艳”的颜色。例如，薄膜是有弹性的，当它们被拉伸或弯曲时，它们的颜色会发生巨大的变化。为了实现我们发现的可能性，我们需要找到如何适当地控制聚合物纳米颗粒的剪切组装，通过在合理的规模上测试挤出，同时光学测量它是如何发生的。我们还需要开发挤出纤维的方法，这些纤维可以用来制作彩虹色织物。只有当我们详细了解其机制时，我们才能知道在进一步投资于商业生产之前，将生产规模扩大到行业希望看到的水平。我们还可以制作各种更有趣的电影，包括发出不同颜色的光，或具有磁性的电影。我们还需要展示这些薄膜是如何分解的，看看在广泛的基础上释放这种材料可能会引起什么环境问题。最后，我们需要与一些大公司合作，为我们应该关注的特定应用程序制定一个计划。我们给每个人看这些橡胶彩色胶片的人，都想要一块带走。我们希望通过纳米材料研究和开发的商业化，为每个人提供电影。

The use of colour in every consumer product is ubiquitous. However with increasing concern for the environment, the use of traditional dyes is becoming problematic. This has opened up new opportunities in producing colour by carving out materials at scales smaller than a millionth of a metre, built of components which are benign. In addition, the new possibilities available for structural colours (iridescent, prismatic, multi-hue, or luminescent) are universally attractive in competitive marketplaces such as mobile electronics, fashion, and automotive/airline industries.We have invented a new process for making plastic films which have appealing structural colours, that can be scaled up to industrial production levels. It is based on making periodic arrangements of stacked nano-spheres with a different optical density to their surroundings, called 3D photonic crystals. Until now, there has been no way to make industrial-scale cheap photonic crystals. Our method is based on making plastic sphere precursors which can be heated and extruded together in such a way that they slide over each other into perfectly packed arrays. By adding tiny nano-particles (hundreds of times smaller in size) in between the spheres we can make an enormous variety of new sorts of materials or fibres which have 'smart' colour. For instance, the films are elastic and they drastically change colour when they are stretched, or are bent.In order to realise the possibilities in our discoveries, we need to find out how to properly control this shearing-assembly of polymer nanoparticles, by testing out the extrusion on a reasonable scale while measuring optically how it is taking place. We also need to develop ways to extrude fibres that could be used for making iridescent fabrics. Only when we understand the mechanisms in detail will we know enough to scale up production to the level that industry wants to see before investing further in commercial manufacture. We can also make a variety of even more intriguing films, including ones which glow with different colours, or are magnetic. We also need to show how the films might decompose to see what environmental issues might be raised by releasing such material on a widespread basis. Finally we need to develop a plan for which particular applications that we should concentrate on, in collaboration with a number of large companies.Everyone who we show these rubbery iridescent films to, wants a piece to take away with them. We want to be able to provide films to everyone, by commercialising our nanomaterials research and development.