Bioinspired high-scattering polymer films fabricated by polymerization-induced phase separation

Opt Lett. 2020 May 15;45(10):2918-2921. doi: 10.1364/OL.390639.

Abstract

Inspired by the porous scale of the bright white beetle Cyphochilus, a polymerization-induced phase separation method is proposed to fabricate bioinspired high-scattering polymer films with porous structures. With an optimized formulation, the porous films with a mean pore size of ∼200nm feature a broadband reflectance of ∼71% at a thickness of 16 µm and are measured to have a transport mean free path of ∼3µm. The porous films with high reflectivity enable the application on light-emitting diodes and have great potential in other similar optoelectronic fields.