Mechano-Responsive Color-Changing Photonic Materials

Color-changing photonic materials are promising candidates for the design of colorimetric sensors and wearable technology, which can for instance be used to quantify the pressure exerted on a patient’s body with compression bandages. While efforts in research groups across the world have resulted in many interesting lab-scale implementations of dynamic photonic materials, the scalable and economically viable production of such materials with high throughput is still a challenge that remains to be addressed. This presentation will be focused on a scalable optical manufacturing approach for the generation of highly stretchable, color-changing photonic sheets on the square-meter scale. The design space that is accessible with this technique with regards to controlling the materials spatio-spectral reflection behavior, its angular scattering characteristics, and its strain-induced color dynamics will be discussed in detail. Potential application scenarios, including medical textiles will be presented.