Study on the factors of structural colors of knitted fabrics

Abstract

In this work, silica nanoparticles were firstly self-assembled by gravity sedimentation to obtain structural colors on knitted fabrics. The factors of fabric structure, base color, and assembly temperature of the structural colors on knitted fabrics were studied. The results showed that the saturation of the structural color fabricated on the rib stitch was higher than that of the plain stitch; it was also proved that the higher density, the brighter and more uniform structural color was produced on the knitted fabric. The structural color of silica photonic crystals produced on white base color can be hardly seen by the eye, while black base color can easily present a vivid red structural color using 377 nm silica nanoparticles, the lightness of the final color can be further improved by using a base fabric with a similar red hue of structural color of photonic crystals. In addition, the optimal assembly temperature for the fabrication of structural colors on knitted fabric is 60 °C.