title: Hydrophilic Modification of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube for Building Photonic Crystals with Enhanced Color Visibility and Mechanical Strength.
abstract: Low color visibility and poor mechanical strength of polystyrene (PS) photonic crystal films have been the main shortcomings for the potential applications in paints or displays. This paper presents a simple method to fabricate PS/MWCNTs (multi-walled carbon nanotubes) composite photonic crystal films with enhanced color visibility and mechanical strength. First, MWCNTs was modified through radical addition reaction by aniline 2,5-double sulfonic acid diazonium salt to generate hydrophilic surface and good water dispersity. Then the MWCNTs dispersion was blended with PS emulsion to form homogeneous PS/MWCNTs emulsion mixtures and fabricate composite films through thermal-assisted method. The obtained films exhibit high color visibility under natural light and improved mechanical strength owing to the light-adsorption property and crosslinking effect of MWCNTs. The utilization of MWCNTs in improving the properties of photonic crystals is significant for various applications, such as in paints and displays.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. lifeihu@mail.dlut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Feihu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. tangbt@dlut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bingtao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. xiujh123@126.com.
authors.forename: Jinghai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. zhangshf@dlut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shufen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008422:Materials Testing; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon
keywords: carbon nanotube; color visibility; hydrophilic modification; mechanical strength; structural color