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| Open AccessMechanically controlled multifaceted dynamic transformations in twisted organic crystal waveguides
Crystals with mechanical responses are of interest, but often only one or two dynamic motions can be achieved with one crystal. Here, the authors report a combination of dynamic movements in naturally twisted optical waveguiding microcrystals.
- Mehdi Rohullah
- , Vuppu Vinay Pradeep
- & Rajadurai Chandrasekar
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Article
| Open AccessFinely manipulating room temperature phosphorescence by dynamic lanthanide coordination toward multi-level information security
Room temperature phosphorescent materials have many desirable properties, but fine control of these can be challenging. Here, the authors report a strategy for this control by dynamic lanthanide coordination in combination with organic phosphors.
- Longqiang Li
- , Jiayin Zhou
- & Tao Chen
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Article
| Open AccessDelayed room temperature phosphorescence enabled by phosphines
Room-temperature phosphorescence usually occurs immediately after the removal of excitation. Here the authors achieve combined instant and delayed phosphorescence through introduction of phosphines into carbazole emitters.
- Guang Lu
- , Jing Tan
- & Hui Xu
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Article
| Open AccessIsostructural doping for organic persistent mechanoluminescence
Organic mechanoluminescent materials have potential in a range of applications, but it can be challenging to achieve long-lived emission. Here, the authors report isostructural doping as a strategy to achieve multicolour and high efficiency organic mechanoluminescence, applied in stress sensing.
- Zongliang Xie
- , Yufeng Xue
- & Bin Liu
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Article
| Open AccessVisible-light-excited robust room-temperature phosphorescence of dimeric single-component luminophores in the amorphous state
Organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) is limited to rigid environments. Here, the authors report a single-component system with robust persistent RTP emissions in various aggregation states, such as crystalline, fine powder, and amorphous.
- Danman Guo
- , Wen Wang
- & Zhiyong Yang
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Article
| Open AccessRapid room-temperature phosphorescence chiral recognition of natural amino acids
Chiral recognition of amino acids with luminescence, despite its advantages, is usually slow and lacks generality. Here, the authors demonstrate that L-phenylalanine derived benzamide can manifest the structural difference between the natural, left-handed amino acid and its right-handed counterpart via the difference in room-temperature phosphorescence, irrespective of the specific chemical structure.
- Xiaoyu Chen
- , Renlong Zhu
- & Guoqing Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessEnabling robust blue circularly polarized organic afterglow through self-confining isolated chiral chromophore
The preparation of systems that give blue circularly polarised organic afterglow is desirable but challenging. Here, the authors confine a chiral chromophore within a polymer matrix to limit non-radiative transitions and give blue circularly polarised organic afterglow.
- Mingjian Zeng
- , Weiguang Wang
- & Wei Huang
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Article
| Open AccessLong lifetimes white afterglow in slightly crosslinked polymer systems
It is challenging to achieve multicolor long-lived room temperature phosphorescence in intrinsic polymers, especially for white afterglow. Here, the authors report a strategy to obtain pure white afterglow micro-crosslinked polymers by covalently coupling different conjugated chromophores with precursors through a simple and rapid one-pot reaction.
- Qingao Chen
- , Lunjun Qu
- & Chaolong Yang
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Article
| Open AccessAggregation induced emission dynamic chiral europium(III) complexes with excellent circularly polarized luminescence and smart sensors
Chiral luminescent materials are of increasing interest in various applications, but achieving a desirable balance of properties can be challenging. Here, the authors report the development of Eu-based complexes with chiral luminescence and aggregation induced emission.
- Yun-Lan Li
- , Hai-Ling Wang
- & Hua-Hong Zou
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Article
| Open AccessQuantifying the interfacial triboelectricity in inorganic-organic composite mechanoluminescent materials
Mechanoluminescence enables sensing applications of mechanical stimuli. Here, the authors reveal the importance of interfacial triboelectricity to this phenomenon in inorganic-organic composite materials.
- Xin Pan
- , Yixi Zhuang
- & Rong-Jun Xie
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Article
| Open AccessNucleic-acid-base photofunctional cocrystal for information security and antimicrobial applications
Cocrystal engineering is a promising strategy for constructing multifunctional materials. Here, the authors describe nucleic-acid-base cocrystal systems with different colors of phosphorescence from their monomeric counterparts and high-temperature phosphorescence with antimicrobial effects and data encryption applications.
- Wenqing Xu
- , Guanheng Huang
- & David Lee Phillips
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Article
| Open AccessStructurally diverse macrocycle co-crystals for solid-state luminescence modulation
Organic co-crystals are useful in the fabrication of functional materials, but it is challenging to achieve structural diversity of co-crystals. Here, the authors report nine sets of macrocycle cocrystals with diverse structures and stoichiometric ratios giving different luminescence properties.
- Bin Li
- , Lingling Liu
- & Chunju Li
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Article
| Open AccessPhotooxidation triggered ultralong afterglow in carbon nanodots
Biocompatible afterglow materials have potential in imaging applications, but are challenging to prepare. Here the authors report the development of carbon nanodots with near-infrared afterglow, and demonstrate their use in imaging for tumour resection.
- Guang-Song Zheng
- , Cheng-Long Shen
- & Chong-Xin Shan
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Article
| Open AccessBiobased and biodegradable films exhibiting circularly polarized room temperature phosphorescence
Sustainable materials with circularly polarized room-temperature phosphorescence are desirable but challenging to design. Here, the authors report the development of thin films, based on cellulose nanocrystals and lignosulfonate, with circularly polarised room temperature phosphorescence.
- Mengnan Cao
- , Yiran Ren
- & Zhijun Chen
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Article
| Open AccessSelenium substitution for dielectric constant improvement and hole-transfer acceleration in non-fullerene organic solar cells
Dielectric constant of non-fullerene acceptors plays a critical role in organic solar cells in terms of exciton dissociation and charge recombination. Here, authors report selenium substitution on central core of acceptors to improve dielectric constant, realizing devices with efficiency of 19.0%.
- Xinjun He
- , Feng Qi
- & Wallace C. H. Choy
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Article
| Open AccessColor construction of multi-colored carbon fibers using glucose
Color construction of black carbon fibers is a challenge due to their stable physicochemical properties. Here, the authors demonstrate the tunable structural color of carbon fibers endowed by the dynamic growth of carbon spheres using glucose.
- Sijie Zhou
- , Chunhua Zhang
- & Weilin Xu
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Article
| Open AccessA general supramolecular strategy for fabricating full-color-tunable thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials
Thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials with full-colour tunability are desirable but challenging to prepare. Here, the authors report a method for preparing such materials through the design of host-guest cocrystals with through-space charge transfer.
- Nan Xue
- , He-Ye Zhou
- & Chuan-Feng Chen
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Article
| Open AccessVisualizing the interfacial-layer-based epitaxial growth process toward organic core-shell architectures
Organic heterostructures with controlled geometry on the micro and nanoscale are important in nanotechnology, but epitaxial growth processes with high lattice mismatching are challenging to achieve. Here, the authors report a visualisation process for morphology evolution on epitaxial growth.
- Ming-Peng Zhuo
- , Xiao Wei
- & Liang-Sheng Liao
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Article
| Open AccessEnabling nonconjugated polyesters emit full-spectrum fluorescence from blue to near-infrared
Near-infrared luminescence is useful for advance applications, but is challenging to achieve through clusteroluminescence. Here, the authors report the use of amine-initiated polyesters for amine-ester clusters with near-infrared emission.
- Bo Chu
- , Xiong Liu
- & Xing-Hong Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessUV-curable thiol-ene system for broadband infrared transparent objects
Processing of conventional infrared-transparent materials limits their applicability. The authors demonstrate 3D printing of thiol-ene optical components with mid- and long-wave infrared transparency with applications such as reaction temperature monitoring.
- Piaoran Ye
- , Zhihan Hong
- & Rongguang Liang
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Article
| Open AccessAnti-Kasha triplet energy transfer and excitation wavelength dependent persistent luminescence from host-guest doping systems
Anti-Kasha processes have potential in organic luminogens, but design of materials with these characteristics is challenging. Here, the authors report the development of a host-guest system with anti-Kasha behaviour and triplet energy transfer.
- Weiwei Xie
- , Wenbin Huang
- & Ben Zhong Tang
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Article
| Open AccessHierarchically manufactured chiral plasmonic nanostructures with gigantic chirality for polarized emission and information encryption
The application of chiral metamaterials is limited by the fabrication of large-area chiral plasmonic structures with high dissymmetry factors. Here, the authors overcome this limitation imparting extrinsic chirality to hierarchical nanostructured polymer substrates with application in quantum and security enhanced optical communications.
- Yoon Ho Lee
- , Yousang Won
- & Joon Hak Oh
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Article
| Open AccessHighly efficient color-tunable organic co-crystals unveiling polymorphism, isomerism, delayed fluorescence for optical waveguides and cell-imaging
Co-crystals of donor-acceptor functional material pairs give switchable optical properties despite challenging aggregation-caused quenching effects. Here, the authors report several organic co-crystals with thermally-activated delayed fluorescence, waveguiding and bio-imaging application.
- Debasish Barman
- , Mari Annadhasan
- & Parameswar Krishnan Iyer
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Article
| Open AccessUpcycling fish scales through heating for steganography and Rhodamine B adsorption application
Waste materials including fish scales are increasingly being developed for alternative applications, but simple processing is required. Here, the authors report the treatment of fish scales to give fluorescent materials suitable for dye absorption.
- Malcolm Miao Geng Sow
- , Zheng Zhang
- & Sharon Xiaodai Lim
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Article
| Open AccessRecyclable soft photonic crystal film with overall improved circularly polarized luminescence
Circularly polarized luminescence materials having simultaneously high dissymmetry factor and high luminescent quantum yield are desirable to improve applicability. Here, the authors report a soft photonic crystal film with chiral nanopores fulfilling these requirements when loaded with luminescent dyes.
- Yonghong Shi
- , Jianlei Han
- & Pengfei Duan
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Article
| Open AccessTowards bioresource-based aggregation-induced emission luminogens from lignin β-O-4 motifs as renewable resources
Biorenewable feedstocks are important for developing more sustainable materials, but developing processes can be challenging due to incompatible reaction conditions. Here, the authors report the one-pot preparation of aggregation-induced emission luminogens from lignin moieties.
- Tenglong Guo
- , Yuting Lin
- & Tao Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessPick and place process for uniform shrinking of 3D printed micro- and nano-architected materials
Three-dimensional structures with micro-/nanoscale features can be produced by two-photon polymerization lithography but suffering from a non-uniform shrinkage. Here, the authors report a poly(vinyl alcohol)-assisted pick-and-place process to uniformly heat shrink three-dimensional micro-/nano-architected materials printed by two-photon polymerization lithography.
- Tomohiro Mori
- , Hao Wang
- & Joel K. W. Yang
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Article
| Open AccessLight-enhanced molecular polarity enabling multispectral color-cognitive memristor for neuromorphic visual system
Designing optoelectronic synapses having a multispectral color-discriminating ability is crucial for neuromorphic visual system. Here, the authors propose an strategy to introduce RGB color-discriminating synaptic functionality into a 2-terminals memristor regardless of switching medium and design a color image-recognizing CNN and light-programmable reservoir computing.
- Jongmin Lee
- , Bum Ho Jeong
- & Hui Joon Park
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Article
| Open AccessHigh-performance blue OLED using multiresonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence host materials containing silicon atoms
Effective energy transfer and suppressed dopant aggregation is critical for realizing efficient organic light-emitting diodes. Here, the authors report six host materials capable of exhibiting enhanced thermal stability and film-formation behavior, demonstrating efficiency of over 30% at 1000 cd/m2.
- Dongmin Park
- , Seokwoo Kang
- & Soo Young Park
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Article
| Open AccessFull-color persistent room temperature phosphorescent elastomers with robust optical properties
Room temperature phosphorescent materials have potential in flexible electronics and photonics, but it is challenging to achieve desirable material properties. Here, the authors report stretchable, lightweight and multicoloured room temperature phosphorescent elastomers.
- Juan Wei
- , Mingye Zhu
- & Qiang Zhao
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Article
| Open AccessPreventing cation intermixing enables 50% quantum yield in sub-15 nm short-wave infrared-emitting rare-earth based core-shell nanocrystals
Controlling cation intermixing in rare-earth based core-shell nanomaterials is a key strategy to improve the emission properties. Here the authors address this challenge by controlling the growth of heterogeneous structures, obtaining 50% short-wavelength infrared quantum yield in sub-15 nm Ce-doped α-NaYF4:Yb:Er@CaF2 nanocrystals.
- Fernando Arteaga Cardona
- , Noopur Jain
- & Damien Hudry
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Article
| Open AccessConstruction of room temperature phosphorescent materials with ultralong lifetime by in-situ derivation strategy
Room temperature phosphorescence materials have been widely investigated, but promotion of the triplet exciton is still challenging. Here, the authors report an in-situ derivation strategy to promote the generation and stabilization of triplet excitons.
- Qinglong Jia
- , Xilong Yan
- & Ligong Chen
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Article
| Open AccessThe host–guest inclusion driven by host-stabilized charge transfer for construction of sequentially red-shifted mechanochromic system
The understanding of the structure-property relationship of mechanochromic luminescent molecules remains challenging. Here, the authors elucidate the effect of host-guest interactions on the mechanochromic properties of organic molecules.
- Dongdong Sun
- , Yong Wu
- & Simin Liu
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Article
| Open AccessRegulating the proximity effect of heterocycle-containing AIEgens
Proximity effect (PE) can impact the behaviour of heterocyclic luminogens, but is rarely used to manipulate the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) related properties. Here, the authors systematically illustrate the impacts of PE and AIE on luminescent behaviors.
- Jianyu Zhang
- , Yujie Tu
- & Ben Zhong Tang
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Article
| Open AccessEnergy conversion and storage via photoinduced polarization change in non-ferroelectric molecular [CoGa] crystals
Energy harvesting by utilizing optical control has emerged as a promising solution to alleviate energy and environmental crisis. However, it is challenging to realise nano-scale energy storage and conversion in the same material. Here the authors report a nonferroelectric molecular [CoGa] crystal that uses light as an external stimulus to exhibit photoenergy conversion and energy storage properties.
- Pritam Sadhukhan
- , Shu-Qi Wu
- & Osamu Sato
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| Open AccessEnantioselective synthesis of chiral quinohelicenes through sequential organocatalyzed Povarov reaction and oxidative aromatization
Heterohelicenes are of increasing importance in materials science but organocatalytic enantioselective synthesis of these molecules remains challenging. Here, the authors synthesize enantioenriched 1-(3-indol)-quino[n]helicenes through chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed Povarov reaction followed by oxidative aromatization and explore the photochemical and electrochemical properties of these compounds.
- Chengwen Li
- , Ying-Bo Shao
- & Xin Li
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Article
| Open AccessIntramolecular charge transfer enables highly-efficient X-ray luminescence in cluster scintillators
X-ray luminescence efficiency of copper halide clusters is limited by nonradiative charge transfer. Here, Zhang et al. report highly emissive radioluminescence of Cu4I4 cubes by functionalizing biphosphine ligands with acridine, unlocking the potential use as low-cost and eco-friendly scintillators.
- Nan Zhang
- , Lei Qu
- & Hui Xu
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Article
| Open AccessLong-wave infrared transparent sulfur polymers enabled by symmetric thiol cross-linker
Infrared (IR) transmissive polymeric materials for optical elements require a balance between their optical and thermal properties but achieving simultaneously a high refractive index and IR transparency in the long wavelength infrared region in polymer materials is challenging. Here the authors demonstrate inverse vulcanization of 1,3,5-benzenetrithiol (BTT) to achieve a long wavelength IR transparent material without sacrificing on the thermal properties.
- Miyeon Lee
- , Yuna Oh
- & Nam-Ho You
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Article
| Open AccessRoom temperature phosphorescence from natural wood activated by external chloride anion treatment
Converting natural wood to room temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials is a complex process often requiring toxic reagents. Here the authors convert natural wood to a RTP material using external chloride ions from a MgCl2 solution, obtaining a promising luminescent additive material for 3D printing.
- Yingxiang Zhai
- , Shujun Li
- & Zhijun Chen
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Article
| Open AccessOrder-disorder phase transition driven by interlayer sliding in lead iodides
2D layered materials attract interest due to their potential for application in nanoelectronics and optoelectronics. Here authors report an order-disorder-type phase transition driven by temperature in bulk lead iodides, and interlayer sliding is identified to play a key role in the mechanism of this phase transition.
- Seyeong Cha
- , Giyeok Lee
- & Keun Su Kim
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Article
| Open AccessOxidation-resistant all-perovskite tandem solar cells in substrate configuration
The superstate configuration in all-perovskite tandem solar cells is disadvantageous for long-term stability. Here, the authors reverse the processing order and demonstrate substrate configuration to bury oxidizable narrow-bandgap perovskites, and achieve efficiency of 25.3% with long stability.
- Yurui Wang
- , Renxing Lin
- & Hairen Tan
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Article
| Open AccessD-O-A based organic phosphors for both aggregation-induced electrophosphorescence and host-free sensitization
Pure organic room-temperature phosphorescencent materials draw much attention but realising electroluminescence under electric excitation is challenging. Here the authors propose a donor-oxygen-acceptor molecular design realizing aggregation-induced organic room-temperature electrophosphorescence with high external quantum efficiency.
- Lulin Xu
- , Yuhang Mo
- & Junqiao Ding
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Article
| Open AccessObservation of Chiral-selective room-temperature phosphorescence enhancement via chirality-dependent energy transfer
Despite increasing interest in organic room temperature phosphorescence, it can still be challenging to determine mechanism and develop practical applications. Here, the authors report room temperature phosphorescent systems from chiral components, with strong phosphorescence observed only when both host and guest had the same chirality.
- Biao Chen
- , Wenhuan Huang
- & Guoqing Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessAlphaFlow: autonomous discovery and optimization of multi-step chemistry using a self-driven fluidic lab guided by reinforcement learning
Autonomous exploration of materials design space is hindered by its high dimensionality and the scarcity of data. In this work, we present AlphaFlow, a self-driven lab guided by reinforcement learning that enables accelerated discovery and optimization of multi-step chemistries.
- Amanda A. Volk
- , Robert W. Epps
- & Milad Abolhasani
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Article
| Open AccessConformation-dependent dynamic organic phosphorescence through thermal energy driven molecular rotations
Organic room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials exhibiting stimuli responsive reversible changes in optical properties show great potential in diverse optoelectronic fields but a lack of mechanistic understanding limits their development. Here, the authors prepare a series of RTP polymers by incorporating phosphorescent rotors into polymer backbones and demonstrate colortunable persistent luminescence upon excitation at different wavelengths
- Juan Wei
- , Chenyuan Liu
- & Qiang Zhao
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Article
| Open AccessElectrically conductive hybrid organic crystals as flexible optical waveguides
The poor conductivity of organic crystals hinders their potential on applications in flexible electronics, wearable devices, and soft robotics. Here, Naumov et al. develop a hybrid organic crystal that shows enhanced electrical conductivity and fast mechanical deformation due to temperature change.
- Xuesong Yang
- , Linfeng Lan
- & Hongyu Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessConstructing high-efficiency orange-red thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters by three-dimension molecular engineering
The design of high-efficiency solution-processable orange-red thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters remains to be a challenge. Here, the authors synthesize a series of emitters consisting of a trinaphtho[3,3,3]propellane core with highly efficient emission in the orange-red region of the spectrum.
- Lei Hua
- , Yuchao Liu
- & Zhongjie Ren
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Article
| Open AccessCircular polarized light-dependent anomalous photovoltaic effect from achiral hybrid perovskites
The manipulation of anomalous photovoltaic current by changing the light helicity has attracted an increasing interest in the field. Here, the authors realize circular polarized light-dependent anomalous bulk photovoltaic effect in achiral hybrid perovskites with a large asymmetry factor of 0.24.
- Tingting Zhu
- , Jie Bie
- & Junhua Luo
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Article
| Open AccessContinuous resin refilling and hydrogen bond synergistically assisted 3D structural color printing
3D photonic crystals (PCs) attract attention due to their unique optical properties but printing of colloidal particles is limited by lack of control over the assembly. Here, the authors demonstrate a continuous digital light processing 3D printing strategy using hydrogen bond assisted colloidal inks for fabricating well-assembled 3D PC structures.
- Yu Zhang
- , Lidian Zhang
- & Yanlin Song