Inputs by Alka Singh
Beijing, Sep 30: The colours of the rainbow, soap bubbles, peacock feathers, and butterfly wings are known as structural colours. The colours are produced by the interaction between microscopic physical structures present in them and natural light. Researchers from the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have produced structural colours using water-based polymer ink.
The polymer ink is transparent to human eye. They replaced paper with glass having a hydrophobic (fails to mix with water) surface. Therefore, when the ink drops fall on the glass, the ink will be repelled, forming a structure similar to a “mini dome”. The surface tension characteristics of the liquid and this hydrophobic effect can help to create mini domes of different shapes and sizes, each of which reflects light of different wavelengths, making the human eye perceive different colours. By bringing thousands of images together, researchers created large full-colour images. Precise manipulation of the mini dome shape and pattern structure helps in controlling the brightness and other aspects of the colour. This new structural polymer ink can be used in existing ink-jet printers, making widespread applications possible.
