title: A thermally tunable inverse opal photonic crystal for monitoring glass transition.
abstract: An optical method was developed to monitor the glass transition of the polymer by taking advantage of reflection spectrum change of the thermally tunable inverse opal photonic crystal. The thermally tunable photonic bands of the polymer inverse opal photonic crystal were traceable to the segmental motion of macromolecules, and the segmental motion was temperature dependent. By observing the reflection spectrum change of the polystyrene inverse opal photonic crystal during thermal treatment, the glass transition temperature of polystyrene was gotten. Both changes of the position and intensity of the reflection peak were observed during the glass transition process of the polystyrene inverse opal photonic crystal. The optical change of inverse opal photonic crystal was so large that the glass transition temperature could even be estimated by naked eyes. The glass transition temperature derived from this method was consistent with the values measured by differential scanning calorimeter.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors: Liguo
authors: L
authors: Sun
authors: Zhuoying
authors: Z
authors: Xie
authors: Hua
authors: H
authors: Xu
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Xu
authors: Guozhi
authors: G
authors: Han
authors: Cheng
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Xuduo
authors: X
authors: Bai
authors: ZhongZe
authors: Z
authors: Gu
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D005898:Glass; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D017785:Photons