Rapid fabrication of photonic crystal patterns with iridescent structural colors on textiles by spray coating

A textile dyeing technique based on structural colors has attracted increasing attention due to the advantages of being fadeless, free of photobleaching, and less pollution. Here, we reported a general method of fabricating vivid iridescent structural colors and photonic crystal (PC) patterns on various textiles by spray coating poly(St-MMA-AA) colloids. With water-repelling and plasma treatments, versatile textiles can be dyed by photonic crystal colorants and exhibit brilliant iridescent structural colors. The results showed that the surface wettability, assembly temperature, particle concentration, spraying distance, and spraying time were important factors in fabricating high-quality PCs on textiles. Due to the soft shell of the colloids with abundant COOH groups, as-prepared structural-colored fabrics presented a flexible and tough character.