Photochromism from wavelength-selective colloidal phase segregation

Jing Zheng, Jingyuan Chen, Yakang Jin, Yan Wen, Yijiang Mu, Changjin Wu, Yufeng Wang, Penger Tong, Zhigang Li, Xu Hou and Jinyao Tang ()
Additional contact information
Jing Zheng: Xiamen University
Jingyuan Chen: The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam
Yakang Jin: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay
Yan Wen: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay
Yijiang Mu: The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam
Changjin Wu: The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam
Yufeng Wang: The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam
Penger Tong: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay
Zhigang Li: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay
Xu Hou: Xiamen University
Jinyao Tang: The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam

Nature, 2023, vol. 617, issue 7961, 499-506

Abstract: Abstract Phase segregation is ubiquitously observed in immiscible mixtures, such as oil and water, in which the mixing entropy is overcome by the segregation enthalpy1–3. In monodispersed colloidal systems, however, the colloidal–colloidal interactions are usually non-specific and short-ranged, which leads to negligible segregation enthalpy4. The recently developed photoactive colloidal particles show long-range phoretic interactions, which can be readily tuned with incident light, suggesting an ideal model for studying phase behaviour and structure evolution kinetics5,6. In this work, we design a simple spectral selective active colloidal system, in which TiO2 colloidal species were coded with spectral distinctive dyes to form a photochromic colloidal swarm. In this system, the particle–particle interactions can be programmed by combining incident light with various wavelengths and intensities to enable controllable colloidal gelation and segregation. Furthermore, by mixing the cyan, magenta and yellow colloids, a dynamic photochromic colloidal swarm is formulated. On illumination of coloured light, the colloidal swarm adapts the appearance of incident light due to layered phase segregation, presenting a facile approach towards coloured electronic paper and self-powered optical camouflage.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05873-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:617:y:2023:i:7961:d:10.1038_s41586-023-05873-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05873-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().