The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Angle independent coloration has predominantly been achieved with inverse opal disordered porous architecture. While this system has primarily focused on bottlebrush block copolymers, the use of linear block copolymers has been unexplored. Here, we report amphiphilic linear BCPs PS-b-P4VP templated inverse opal photonic microparticle with short-range-ordered nanoporous structure. This porous structure was constructed via water infiltration induced by interfacial instability arising from the adsorption of surfactant and block copolymer at the O/W emulsion interface. We establish quantitative design rules to control pore size, shell thickness, and structural color by tuning surfactant type, BCP molecular weight and pyridine quaternization. Finally, we demonstrate its potential as an optical pigment for patterned printing of carbomer–acrylamide hydrogels with BCP photonic microparticles.