Solvent sensitive polymer composite structures

• Polystyrene colloidal nanoparticles assembled and embedded in an elastomeric matrix (PCC).
• PCC present a different optical response as a function of the solvent applied.
• PCC are used as substrate to transfer high resolved color images.

In this paper we describe a composite system based on polystyrene colloidal nanoparticles assembled and embedded in an elastomeric matrix (polymer colloidal crystal, PCC), in the specific we have designed a PCC structure which displays an iridescent green color that can be attributed to the photonic crystal effect. This effect has been exploited to create a chemical sensor, in fact optical measurements have evidenced that the composite structure presents a different optical response as a function of the solvent applied on the surface. In particular we have demonstrated that the PCC possess, for specific solvents: (i) high sensitivity, (ii) fast response (less than 1s), and (iii) reversibility of the signal change. Finally preliminary results on the PCC have shown that this system can be also used as optical writing substrate using a specific solvent as ink, moreover an erasing procedure is also reported and discussed.