A new process to make structurally colored materials by the hundreds of meters may lead to advances in smart clothing or counterfeit-proof bank notes.
The materials, known as polymer opals, are made of nano-sized spheres mixed with a gum-like polyethylacrylate. They get their color from the refraction of light inside the material, so when they are bent or stretched, their colors change — much like a synthetic version of butterfly wings or the iridescent feathers of a peacock’s tail.
It has been possible to make these materials for many years, but only in small batches, and doing so required much patience.
“It takes three months for the nanospheres to sediment down to the bottom of a test tube,” says Jeremy Baumberg, a professor of nanophotonics at the Univ. of Cambridge.
Baumberg and his team have devised a process to make polymer opals faster and on an industrial scale. “The trick is finding a way to assemble spheres into arrays,” Baumberg says. Typically, a liquid containing suspended spheres separates into...
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