Preparation of robust fully encapsulated structural color fabrics and their application to display

Building photonic crystals on the surface of flexible textiles is a common way to obtain structural color fabrics. However, strict requirements for substrate fabric properties, poor stability of photonic crystals, and the lack of new application scenarios have hindered the promotion and use of structural color materials. In this study, we immobilized polystyrene photonic crystals in a fully encapsulated form on the surface of flexible white cotton fabric. These photonic crystals exhibited bright and iridescent structural colors. The fully encapsulated structure imparted high mechanical stability to the photonic crystals. After conducting mechanical and chemical resistance tests, the structural color fabric maintained an intact photonic crystal structure and a significant structural color effect. We also used the prepared structural color fabric to make adhesive tapes, which could easily adhere to surfaces of different materials (e.g., glass, metals, polymers, etc.) and showed good adhesive properties. The findings of our study not only addressed the limitations of the previous methods of preparing structural color fabrics but also provided a new to use these fabrics in practical situations.