Photonic Properties of Colloidal Crystal Elastic Sheets Formed by Electrostatic Repulsion and Shear Stress and Their Fundamental Deformation Modes

Hiroshi Fudouzi; Tsutomu Sawada; Satoshi Kawanaka; Fumio Uchida

doi:10.53941/mi.2025.100011

Abstract

Recently, mechanochromic soft materials that enable smart sensing functions by visual inspection without the need for special devices have been attracting attention. We have developed a non-close-packed type elastic colloidal crystal sheet through a simple shear-induced process. The colloidal crystal state, in which the (111) plane exhibited significant orientation due to shear stress, was successfully stabilized in the 4-hydroxybutyl acrylate (4-HBA) monomer precursor dispersed with desalted silica colloidal particles through the implementation of UV irradiation radical polymerization. Consequently, a solid colloidal crystal sheet was produced, capable of reversibly modulating its structural color in response to elastic deformation. In this article report will address the stress response functions of this sheet due to elastic deformation of stretching, compressing and bending. In addition, a rapid structural color change at 4.17 ms unit by impacting. By analysis of tensile and strain curve, Young’s module was 0.56 MPa, tensile strength 0.73 MPa and elongation brake was 142.9%. In addition, durability repeating elongating the rubber sheet for 100,000 times. Up now 150 cm² sheet produced by hand made batch process. This simple process is suitable for scaling up colloidal crystal to mass production and is expected to have a wide range of engineering applications with mechanochromic materials.

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