Fabrication of non-iridescent structural color on silk surface by rapid polymerization of dopamine

Abstract

Dopamine (DA) has excellent adhesion and film-forming property due to its catechol structure. In this work, a non-iridescent structural color film was constructed on silk fabric surface by using film-forming property of dopamine (DA) under static condition. At the same time, copper ions and hydrogen peroxide were introduced to induce rapid polymerization of dopamine, which greatly shortened the time of structural color fabrication. The SEM and AFM tests showed that the colored fabric surface had a double-layer structure, one layer was extremely smooth film, and the other layer under the film was polydopamime (PDA) spherical particles. The structural color of the fabric depended on the thickness of the uppermost film. With the extension of time, the film thickness increased continuously, and the color displayed yellow, red, blue, and green in turn. When the film thickness reached a certain value, the structure color returned to yellow, and the structural color has periodicity. This study provides a simple, green, and effective method using DA to prepare structural color on fabric surface.