Full Color Stop Bands in Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Block Copolymer Photonic Gels by Swelling-Freezing

Abstract

We report a facile way of fabricating hybrid organic/inorganic photonic gets by selective swelling and subsequent infiltration of SiO2 into one type of lamellar microdomain previously self-assembled from modest-molecular-weight block copolymers. Transparent, in-plane lamellar films were first prepared by assembly of polystyrene-block-poly (2-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P2VP), and subsequently the P2VP domains were swollen with a selective solvent, methanol. The swollen structures were then fixated by synthesizing SiO2 nanopartictes within P2VP domains. The resulting frozen photonic gets (f-photonic gets) exhibited strong reflective colors with stop bands across the visible region of wavelengths.