Highly ordered 3D colloidal architectures provide access to a rapidly growing field for various applications, e.g. as sensors, for membrane technologies or energy storage. A promising technique for the preparation of colloidal crystal films is the so called melt-shear organization technique, which is based on tailor-made core-shell architectures, accessible by stepwise emulsion polymerization or grafting-from techniques. During melt-shearing which comprises an increase in temperature under application of moderate pressures, a radial flow profile for the polymer mass is induced and the core particles form a colloidal crystal structure inside the viscous polymeric shell material. The advantage of this technique compared to other processes is the possibility to create flexible and large-scalable films without a dispersion medium.<br/><br/>The use of stimuli-responsive monomers offers the possibility to create responsive opal films that can be switched by e.g. temperature, light, redox or solvent as a trigger. Furthermore the obtained colloidal crystal structures can be converted into highly ordered porous materials by etching or thermal processing, resulting in either stimuli-responsive inverse opal films based on the soft polymer approach. Or alternatively crack-free porous hybrid materials from a single-source precursor can be produced.<br/>This novel approach by smart particle design and processing paves forward novel strategies for the production of switchable and functional 3D porous materials.

Stimuli-responsive porous materials by tailoring hybrid-polymer core-shell architectures

255th National Meeting (2018)

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