(321g) Macroporous Polymer-Based Color Reflective Displays

Inexpensive fabrication of ultrathin flat-panel color displays is of great technological importance in a large variety of optoelectronic devices. Self-assembled diffractive colloidal photonic crystals provide a simple and inexpensive approach for developing all-color displays. Here we report a new concept that enables the realization of color reflective displays by using self-assembled macroporous polymer membranes. Macroporous polymers with three-dimensionally ordered voids are templated from self-assembled colloidal crystals. The resulting films exhibit brilliant iridescent colors due to the Bragg diffraction of visible light by the periodic voids. We show that the voids can be filled up by a refractive index-matched liquid using controlled capillary condensation, resulting in transparent films with no reflective colors. By using this simple approach, we have demonstrated that active-matrix reflective displays can be fabricated on both flat and curved surfaces.