Structural coloration of white cotton fabrics via self-assembly of SiO2/carbon composite microspheres

Highly reflective substrate surfaces produce strong reflections of interfering and scattered light, which reduces the saturation and brightness of structural colors constructed by photonic crystals. Amorphous SiO 2 photonic crystals of 250–360 nm were synthesized using the Stober method, and then synergized with strongly light-absorbing carbon nanoparticles to construct a variety of structural colors on the surface of white cotton fabrics by electrostatic self-assembly. The vividness and stability of the structural colors on the surface of black cotton fabrics were also compared. The results showed that the structural color cotton fabrics had excellent washing fastness and abrasion fastness. The microscopic morphology of SiO 2 microspheres and structured color surfaces were investigated by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The compositional structure of SiO 2 microspheres was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The color quality of structured color cotton fabrics was investigated using reflectance spectra and K/S values.