Organized Self-Emulsification toward Structural Color

Abstract

The formation of water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsions can be well-controlled through an organized self-emulsification mechanism in the presence of rigid bottlebrush amphiphilic block copolymers. Nanoscale water droplets with well-controlled diameters form ordered spatial arrangements within the micron-scale oil droplets. Upon solvent evaporation, solid microspheres with hexagonal close packed nanopore arrays are obtained resulting in bright structural colors. The reflected color is precisely tunable across the whole visible light range through tailoring contour length of the bottlebrush molecule. In-situ observation of the W/O interface using confocal laser scanning microscopy provides insights into the mechanism of the organized self-emulsification. This work provides a powerful strategy for the fabrication of structural colored materials in an easy and scalable manner.