Fast Switching of Bright Whiteness in Channeled Hydrogel Networks

Advanced Functional Materials
Amanda EklundOlli Ikkala

Abstract

Beside pigment absorption and reflection by periodic photonic structures, natural species often use light scattering to achieve whiteness. Synthetic hydrogels offer opportunities in stimuli-responsive materials and devices; however, they are not conventionally considered as ideal materials to achieve high whiteness by scattering due to the ill-defined porosities and the low refractive index contrast between the polymer and water. Herein, a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel network with percolated empty channels (ch-PNIPAm) is demonstrated to possess switchable bright whiteness upon temperature changes, obtained by removing the physical agarose gel in a semi-interpenetrating network of agarose and PNIPAm. The hydrogel is highly transparent at room temperature and becomes brightly white above 35 °C. Compared to conventional PNIPAm, the ch-PNIPAm hydrogel exhibits 80% higher reflectance at 800 nm and 18 times faster phase transition kinetics. The nanoscopic channels in the ch-PNIPAm facilitate water diffusion upon phase transition, thus enabling the formation of smaller pores and enhanced whiteness in the gel. Furthermore, fast photothermally triggered response down to tens of milliseconds can be achieved. This unique property ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 25, 2021·Research : a Science Partner Journal·Zhouyue LeiPeiyi Wu
Sep 30, 2021·The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters·Chenxue XiangDong Wang

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
light scattering
scanning electron microscopy

Software Mentioned

Scan
ViewSonic
ImageJ

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