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A surface displays structural colors when light is reflected by tiny, regular structural elements in a transparent material.
Researchers have now developed a method to make structural colors from cellulose-based polymers by using coated droplets that exist in a surrounding fluid -- so-called liquid marbles.
Structural colors are a way to colorize a material without using a dye.
Manos Anyfantakis and colleagues at the University of Luxembourg have identified a means to control the pitch, the distance of a full helical turn in a polymer, as a structural element on which reflection might occur and structural colors appear.
Now, Anyfantakis and colleagues have discovered a faster and better controllable method, using liquid marbles as a platform for the controlled self-assembly of biopolymer-based structural colors.
Liquid marbles are millimeter-sized droplets of liquid crystalline solutions, which are coated with nanoparticles.
In this case, the scientists prepared liquid marbles from an aqueous solution of hydroxypropyl cellulose -- a modified cellulose polymer that orients itself in cholesteric phases --coated by silica nanoparticles.
The colors were the result of a concentration change in the droplets, the authors found out. The organic solvent slowly extracted water from the liquid marbles, which caused the biopolymer to adopt a crystal form suitable for structural colors.
The scientists also introduced external stimuli such as heat, pressure, or exposure to the chemicals and observed characteristic color shifts, corresponding to a varying pitch size.
The authors believe that the biopolymer-based liquid marbles could offer a route to synthesize cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and sustainable sensors.