Responsive Photonic Crystals with Tunable Structural Color

Abstract

Since colorimetric sensors can respond to environmental stimulus by the color change, they are widely concerned because of their low cost and low power consumed. A new material in colorimetric sensors called photonic crystals (PCs) was fabricated for sensing the external stimulus. PCs are composed of periodic ordered dielectrics nanostructures with photonic band gap. Different from dye, PCs can exhibit vivid structural color, which can be tailored by lattice spacing variation under the external stimulus. The PCs materials have important applications in the fields of display, sensors, anti-counterfeiting, and others. In this chapter, we will discuss strategies and mechanism for the fabrication of responsive PCs. Moreover, PCs materials demonstrate response characteristic under external stimuli, such as mechanical force, temperature, pH, ionic species, solvents, biomolecules, light, electrical or magnetic fields, and others. Challenge and perspective of this emerging area will also be discussed at the end of this chapter.