LAUSR

AbstractP(St-MAA) photonic crystals of face-centered cubic structure in bright structural colors were fabricated on polyester fabrics by interface–gravity joint self-assembly. The elaborate self-assembly process was investigated by digital camera, 3D video microscope, and field emission scanning electron microscopy, and the possible interface–gravity joint self-assembly and crystallization mechanisms of the colloidal microspheres on polyester fabric substrates were proposed. It was confirmed that the interface–gravity joint self-assembly on polyester fabrics was composed of two different self-assembly processes simultaneously, in which the rate of interfacial self-assembly driven by capillary force and convection effect is much faster than the gravitational sedimentation self-assembly under the gravity. With the evaporation of solvent, an ordered colloidal crystal structure was gradually formed in the interfacial self-assembly on the air–liquid interface with a disorder-to-order transition during crystallization stage and covered on the polyester fabric substrate filled with colloidal microspheres in gaps between yarns and fibers during gravitational sedimentation self-assembly.