Photonic water dynamically responsive to external stimuli

Koki Sano, Youn Soo Kim, Yasuhiro Ishida (), Yasuo Ebina, Takayoshi Sasaki, Takaaki Hikima and Takuzo Aida ()
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Koki Sano: School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Youn Soo Kim: School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Yasuhiro Ishida: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science
Yasuo Ebina: National Institute for Materials Science, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics
Takayoshi Sasaki: National Institute for Materials Science, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics
Takaaki Hikima: RIKEN SPring-8 Center
Takuzo Aida: School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Fluids that contain ordered nanostructures with periodic distances in the visible-wavelength range, anomalously exhibit structural colours that can be rapidly modulated by external stimuli. Indeed, some fish can dynamically change colour by modulating the periodic distance of crystalline guanine sheets cofacially oriented in their fluid cytoplasm. Here we report that a dilute aqueous colloidal dispersion of negatively charged titanate nanosheets exhibits structural colours. In this ‘photonic water’, the nanosheets spontaneously adopt a cofacial geometry with an ultralong periodic distance of up to 675 nm due to a strong electrostatic repulsion. Consequently, the photonic water can even reflect near-infrared light up to 1,750 nm. The structural colour becomes more vivid in a magnetic flux that induces monodomain structural ordering of the colloidal dispersion. The reflective colour of the photonic water can be modulated over the entire visible region in response to appropriate physical or chemical stimuli.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12559

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