Solution-Processable Photonic Inks of Mie-Resonant Hollow Carbon-Silica Nanospheres

Seung-Hyun Kim; Victoria Hwang; Sang Goo Lee; Jong-Wook Ha; Vinothan N Manoharan; Gi-Ra Yi

doi:10.1002/smll.201900931

Solution-Processable Photonic Inks of Mie-Resonant Hollow Carbon-Silica Nanospheres

Small. 2019 Jun;15(23):e1900931. doi: 10.1002/smll.201900931. Epub 2019 Apr 30.

Authors

Seung-Hyun Kim^{1

2}, Victoria Hwang³, Sang Goo Lee², Jong-Wook Ha², Vinothan N Manoharan^{3

4}, Gi-Ra Yi¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, Republic of Korea.
² Interface Materials and Chemical Engineering Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon, 34114, Republic of Korea.
³ Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

PMID: 31038291
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201900931

Abstract

Hollow carbon-silica nanospheres that exhibit angle-independent structural color with high saturation and minimal absorption are made. Through scattering calculations, it is shown that the structural color arises from Mie resonances that are tuned precisely by varying the thickness of the shells. Since the color does not depend on the spatial arrangement of the particles, the coloration is angle independent and vibrant in powders and liquid suspensions. These properties make hollow carbon-silica nanospheres ideal for applications, and their potential in making flexible, angle-independent films and 3D printed films is explored.

Keywords: Mie scattering; hollow carbon silica; photonic glass; self-assembly.

Abstract

Grants and funding