Fundamentals, Classification of Photonic Crystals and Their Applications in Textiles: A Review

Abstract

Traditional textile dyeing and printing processes are usually accompanied by severe environmental pollution, high water consumption, and heavy metal discharge, which pose a great threat to ecological sustainability and human health. To address these problems, the development of eco-friendly structural coloration strategies has become an urgent demand in modern textile engineering. Inspired by nature, animals and plants display diverse structural colors to fulfill survival, communication, and reproduction needs. This unique coloration enables tunable and vivid hues without relying on chemical dyes or pigments, which has spurred the rapid development of optical materials featuring structural color in fields such as color display, anti-counterfeiting, and smart sensing. Photonic crystals (PCs), a type of material that produces structural colors through the interaction between microstructure and light, have demonstrated significant potential in the field of textile green coloring. This is attributed to their straightforward preparation process, environmental friendliness, and excellent fading resistance. PC materials provide a brand-new and promising idea for clean coloring of textiles; however, there are few reviews in this field. Distinct from the previous reviews, we present an overview of the advancements in PCs structural color materials and emphasize their recent developments within the textile field. First, the chromogenic mechanism, definition, classification of PCs, and their current representative applications are introduced. Second, the utilization of PCs structural color materials in the textile field is examined, encompassing structural color fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Third, the current challenges faced by structural color fabrics are sorted out and analyzed in a problem-oriented manner, including the colorfastness, preparation efficiency, patterning and functionalization. The challenges and developmental prospects encountered by structural color textiles are comprehensively summarized. We envision that this review will guide the advancement of PC-based structural colors in textiles and inspire interdisciplinary research and practical applications across colloid chemistry, bionics, materials science, optics, and textile engineering.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

Structural colors / Photonic crystals / Textiles / Colloidal nanosphere / Self-assembly / Nanotechnology

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(52473004)

Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region(2024D01C214)

Open Project Program of Xinjiang University Key Laboratory of Intelligent and Green Textile(ZNLS2025002)

Basic Research Projects of Universities in Xinjiang(XJEDU2025P014)

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Donghua University, Shanghai, China

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